A church head has a way round this area (5)
I believe the answer is:
patch
'this area' is the definition.
(patch is a kind of area)
'a church head has a way round' is the wordplay.
'head' suggests taking the first letters.
'has a way' becomes 'path' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'round' indicates putting letters inside.
The first letter of 'church' is 'c'.
'c' placed within 'path' is 'PATCH'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for patch that I've seen before include "Material used to cover a tear" , "Mend with piece of material" , "Mend with extra piece" , "Repair; area" , "Piece of material sewn over a hole" .)