Vicar: Encyclopedia II - Vicar - Anglican

Vicar - Anglican

In the Church of England, vicar is the ordinary title given to certain parish priests. Historically, Anglican parish clergymen were divided into rectors, vicars, and perpetual curates. These were distinguished according to the way in which they were remunerated. The church was supported by tithes — taxes (traditionally, as the etymology of tithe suggests, of ten percent) levied on the agricultural output of the parish. These were divided into greater tithes levied on wheat, hay and wood, and lesser tithes levied on the remainder. A rector received both greater and lesser tithes, a vicar the lesser tithes only. A perpetual curate received no tithe income and was supported by the diocese. The adjective perpetual emphasises that such a clergyman enjoyed the same security of tenure as his more affluent peers. An Act of Parliament of 1868 permitted perpetual curates to style themselves vicars. The conjunction of this change with near-contemporaneous church reforms aimed at reducing the disparities of income among clergymen meant that the distinction between the grades of clergymen became progressively less relevant and remarked upon.

Most parishes in England and Wales retain the historical title for their parish priest — rector or vicar — with vicar being more common. However, the distinction is now only historical. In the late twentieth century, a shortage of clergy and the disparity of workload between parish clergy led to the development of a number of new forms of parish ministry. One of these, which has proved relatively effective, is the Team ministry or benefice. A number of parishes join together to form the Team, but each parish retains its legal definition and independence. Rather than having clergy licensed to the individual parishes, a team of clergy are licensed to the entire Team. In this system, the more senior priest takes the title Team Rector and serves as parish priest in the main parish, and one or more stipendiary, experienced priests serve as Team Vicars (often installed into the other parishes). Non-stipendiary clergy and assistant curates take other titles, often Team Curate.

In many other Anglican provinces, the distinction between a vicar and a rector is different. In the Church of Ireland and the Scottish Episcopal Church, most parish priests are rectors. In the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, a vicar is a priest in charge of a mission, that is, a congregation supported by its diocese, as opposed to a self-sustaining parish, which is headed by a rector.

Vicar - Ulster

In early 17th century Ulster every church had a vicar and a parson instead of a co-arb and an erenagh. The vicar, like the co-arb, was always in orders. He said the mass (‘serveth the cure’) and received a share of the tithes. The parson, like the erenagh, had a major portion of the tithes, maintained the church and provided hospitality. As he was not usually in clerical orders, his responsibilities were mainly temporal. However, there were differences in the divisions of the tithes between various dioceses in Tyrone. In the Diocese of Clogher, the vicar and the parson shared the tithes equally between them; in the Diocese of Derry, church income came from both tithes and the rental of church lands (‘temporalities’). The vicar and the parson each received one third of the tithes and paid an annual tribute to the bishop. In places where there was no parson, the erenagh continued to receive two thirds of the income in kind from the church lands, and delivered the balance, after defraying maintenance, to the Bishop in cash as a yearly rental. In other places, the parson, the vicar and the erenagh shared the costs of church repairs equally between them. In the Diocese of Armagh the parson received two-thirds of the tithes and the vicar one third. The archbishop and the erenagh impropriated no part thereof, presumably because they received the entire income from the termon lands. The division of responsibilities between vicar and parson seems to derive from a much earlier precedent established in the old Celtic Church of St Columcille.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Anglican", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki