A Bandon hermit heading off back to a French church (8)

I believe the answer is:

renounce

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'a bandon' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.

'hermit heading off back to a french church' is the wordplay.
'hermit' becomes 'loner' (I've seen this before).
'heading off' means to remove the first letter.
'back' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'to a french' becomes 'un' ('a' in French).
'church' becomes 'ce' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'loner' with its initial letter removed is 'oner'.
'oner' written backwards gives 'reno'.
'reno'+'un'+'ce'='RENOUNCE'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for renounce that I've seen before include "Foreswear, relinquish" , "Disown formally, repudiate" , "Decide to forgo" , "Give up, turn away from" , "Abandon, give up" .)

I've seen this clue in the Irish Times.

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