"A parson is a clergyman responsible for a small area, typically a parish. The term was formerly used in the Anglican Church and more rarely in ...
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other Protestant churches. It is no longer a formal term denoting a specific position within the Anglican Church, but has some continued historical and colloquial use.
In the pre-Reformation church, a parson was the priest of an independent parish church, that is, a parish 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 organization. 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 Protestant denominations. A parson is often housed in a church-owned home known as a parsonage." - (en.wikipedia.org 09.01.2021)
