Take the place of first woman supporting rector and priest (7)
I believe the answer is:
relieve
'take the place of' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'woman supporting rector and priest' is the wordplay.
'woman' becomes 'eve' (Eve is an example).
'supporting' means one lot of letters go next to another (in a down clue, some letters go below others).
'rector' becomes 'r'.
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'priest' becomes 'eli' (biblical figure).
'r'+'eli'='reli'
'eve' put after 'reli' is 'RELIEVE'.
'first' is the link.
(Other definitions for relieve that I've seen before include "Alleviate (eg, pain)" , "Alleviate pain or stress" , "Make (pain) less severe" , "Assuage, ease" , "Palliate" .)