After singer departs for church (6)
I believe the answer is:
beyond
'after' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
I can't explain the remainder of the clue.
(Other definitions for beyond that I've seen before include "Farther along in space, time or degree" , "Outside the range of" , "Farther than or outside" , "(The) hereafter" , "Better than" .)