2. Belonging to, characteristic of, or constituting another and very different place, society, or person; strange. See Synonyms at foreign. 3. Dissimilar, inconsistent, or opposed, as in nature: emotions alien to her temperament.
n, pl -thens or -then. 1. (Alternative Belief Systems) a person who does not acknowledge the God of Christianity, Judaism, or Islam; pagan. 2. an uncivilized or barbaric person. 3. (Alternative Belief Systems) the heathen (functioning as plural) heathens collectively.
Laity is the common term used to describe everyone who is not clergy. Laity in Greek is laos, âthe peopleâ. In the early Church the word referred to the new chosen people; the laos theou, the people of God. Through the years, âlaityâ evolved with a more negative connotation that attempted to distinguish the âcommonâ people from the âeliteâ clergy. Vatican II did much to recapture the original meaning of the word reminding us that laity is all the people of God who are called through their baptism to transform the world.