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Parson
A parson is an ordained Christian person responsible for a small area, typically a parish. The term was formerly often used for some Anglican clergy and, more rarely, for ordained ministers in some other churches. It is no longer a formal term denoting a specific position within Anglicanism, but has some continued historical and colloquial use.[1]
In the pre-Reformation church, a parson was the priest of an independent parish church, that is, a church not under the control of a larger ecclesiastical or monastic organization. The term is similar to rector and is in contrast to a vicar, a cleric whose revenue is usually, at least partially, appropriated by a larger organisation. Today the term is normally used for some parish clergy of non-Roman Catholic churches, in particular in the Anglican tradition in which a parson is the incumbent of a parochial benefice: a parish priest or a rector; in this sense a parson can be compared with a vicar. The title parson can be applied to clergy from certain other denominations. A parson is often housed in a church-owned home known as a parsonage.[2]
- ^ Chaucer, Geoffrey; Pollard, A.W. (1903). Chaucer's Canterbury Tales: The Prologue. Macmillan's English classics. Macmillan. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
- ^ Anthony Jennings, The Old Rectory: The History of the English Parsonage, Continuum, 2009; ISBN 978-0-8264-2658-1
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