A theologian holding leading position, wanting the church improved? (8)
I believe the answer is:
advanced
'improved?' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'a theologian holding leading position wanting the church' is the wordplay.
'theologian' becomes 'DD' (Doctor of Divinity degree).
'holding' indicates putting letters inside.
'leading position' becomes 'van' (term for the front of a group eg a military group).
'wanting' says to put letters next to each other.
'the church' becomes 'CE' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'van'+'ce'='vance'
'dd' placed around 'vance' is 'dvanced'.
'a'+'dvanced'='ADVANCED'
(Other definitions for advanced that I've seen before include "Lent - brought forward" , "progressive" , "At a higher level" , "Submitted" , "early" .)