A confraternity is generally a Christian voluntary association of laypeople created for the purpose of promoting special works of Christian charity or piety, and approved by the Church hierarchy. They are most common among Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Anglicans, and the Western Orthodox. When a Catholic confraternity has received the authority to aggregate to itself groups erected in other localities, it is called an archconfraternity. Examples include the various confraternities of penitents and the confraternities of the cord, as well as the Confraternity of the Holy Guardian Angels and the Confraternity of the Rosary.

In religious organizations, the laity consists of all members who are not part of the clergy, usually including any non-ordained members of religious orders, e.g. a nun or a lay brother. In both religious and wider secular usage, a layperson is a person who is not qualified in a given profession or does not have specific knowledge of a certain subject. The phrase "layman's terms" is used to refer to plain language that is understandable to the everyday person, as opposed to specialised terminology understood only by a professional.