Character in small island church (5)
I believe the answer is:
aitch
'character' is the definition.
(aitch is a kind of character)
'small island church' is the wordplay.
'small island' becomes 'ait' (I've seen this before).
'church' becomes 'ch' (common abbreviation).
'ait'+'ch'='AITCH'
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for aitch that I've seen before include "that I will immediately succeed" , "The letter h in full" , "that may be dropped" , "first bit of hymn?" , "the start of hives?" .)