Church caretaker, initially rather on edge (6)
I believe the answer is:
verger
'church caretaker' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'initially rather on edge' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'edge' could be 'verge' (verge is a kind of edge) and 'verge' is present in the answer.
A single letter 'r' remains which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for verger that I've seen before include "Church caretaker and attendant" , "Church official" , "Church officer" .)