Church officer functioning after cross is put in place (6)
I believe the answer is:
sexton
'church officer' is the definition.
(sexton is a kind of church officer)
'cross is put in place' is the wordplay.
'cross' becomes 'x'.
'is put in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'place' becomes 'seton' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'x' placed within 'seton' is 'SEXTON'.
'functioning after' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sexton that I've seen before include "Church caretaker, gravedigger" , "They went and told the -, and / The - tolled the bell (Thomas Hood)" , "Job" , "Church officer who attends the clergy" , "Church official" .)