Thanks for the link, there is much more to come.

I can imagine that replacing a rector has got to be an utterly thankless job. I had imagined in the Epsicopal church the bishop did it, but it sounds from what you are saying that the lay folk have a say in the process -- which, I can imagine, means it is fraught with difficulty verging on impossibility.

I dated a Congregationalist for some years, and she explained to me how difficult it was to replace a minister -- especially so in the case of a church where each congregation is, in a sense, its own distinct religious community.

The Episcopal Church is kind of a hybrid. We have a governing hierarchy very similar to the Catholic Church, except that with us positions (Bishoprics, etc.) are filled by various kinds of election, not appointment. For an individual parish's Rector, that parish's Vestry gets saddled with the job of finding and bringing him in. It's a task nobody wants.