Catching echo, paces across middle of Wesleyan churches (8)
I believe the answer is:
steeples
'churches' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being plural nouns.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'catching echo paces across middle of wesleyan' is the wordplay.
'catching' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'echo' becomes 'e' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'paces' becomes 'steps' ('step' can be a synonym of 'pace').
'across' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'middle of' says to take the centre.
The middle of 'wesleyan' is 'le'.
'steps' going around 'le' is 'steples'.
'e' placed inside 'steples' is 'STEEPLES'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for steeples that I've seen before include "Towers with spires on church roofs" , "Lee steps up on churches" , "Tall towers tapering to a point" , "Tall church towers" , "Jack can climb them" .)