A northern church’s attempt to establish origin (8)
I believe the answer is:
ancestry
'origin' is the definition.
('ancestry' can be a synonym of 'origin')
'a northern church's attempt' is the wordplay.
'northern' becomes 'n' (abbreviation e.g. N. Ireland).
'church's' becomes 'ces' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'attempt' becomes 'try' (I've seen this before).
'a'+'n'+'ces'+'try'='ANCESTRY'
'to establish' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for ancestry that I've seen before include "Lineage" , "Blood line" , "race" , "Line of descendants" , "Line of forebears" .)