Coins from church supporting writer (5)
I believe the answer is:
pence
'coins' is the definition.
(penny is a kind of coin)
'church supporting writer' is the wordplay.
'church' becomes 'CE' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'supporting' means one lot of letters go next to another (in a down clue, some letters go below others).
'writer' becomes 'pen' (something which writes).
'ce' put after 'pen' is 'PENCE'.
'from' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for pence that I've seen before include "Old coins" , "offering to St Peter" , "p" , "President's vice" , "Old money for the US vice-president" .)