Church suffering freeze (5)
I believe the answer is:
chill
'freeze' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'church suffering' is the wordplay.
'church' becomes 'ch' (common abbreviation).
'suffering' becomes 'ill'.
'ch'+'ill'='CHILL'
(Other definitions for chill that I've seen before include "Make cold (or frightened)" , "nip" , "Slight cold" , "Slang injunction to relax - it's cold" , "Unpleasant coldness in the air" .)