Burn church following endless derision (6)
I believe the answer is:
scorch
'burn' is the definition.
(scorching is a kind of burning)
'church following endless derision' is the wordplay.
'church' becomes 'ch' (common abbreviation).
'following' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'endless' means to remove the last letter.
'derision' becomes 'scorn' (I've seen this in another clue).
'scorn' with its last letter taken away is 'scor'.
'ch' after 'scor' is 'SCORCH'.
(Other definitions for scorch that I've seen before include "dry up" , "Burn until black" , "Burn slightly" , "Mark by overheating" , "Mark, hurt, with heat" .)