Animal in church with little devil (5)
I believe the answer is:
chimp
'animal' is the definition.
(short for chimpanzee)
'church with little devil' is the wordplay.
'church' becomes 'ch' (common abbreviation).
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'little devil' becomes 'imp' (an imp is a little demon).
'ch'+'imp'='CHIMP'
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for chimp that I've seen before include "Anthropoid ape" , "A great ape (abbr.)" , "Cheeky primate" , "Creature" , "Arboreal ape from equatorial Africa (abbr)" .)