Plenty of waste exposed in American church (9)
I believe the answer is:
affluence
'plenty' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'waste exposed in american church' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'american' could be 'a' (common abbreviation - e.g. in organisation names) and 'a' is located in the answer.
'church' could be 'ce' (abbreviation for Church of England) and 'ce' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'of' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for affluence that I've seen before include "Plenty" , "Fortune" , "Abundant wealth" , "Prosperity or wealth" , "Wealth - abundance" .)