Sentence:  All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill. It was ugly, gross. Never before had he felt such repulsion when the <WSD>vicar</WSD> displayed his characteristic bluntness or coarseness of speech. In the present connexion [...] such talk had been distressingly out of place. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  In the Church of England, the priest of a parish, receiving a salary or stipend but not tithes.