Contact a church pursuing religious education (5)
I believe the answer is:
reach
'contact' is the definition.
(I know that contact can be written as reach)
'a church pursuing religious education' is the wordplay.
'church' becomes 'ch' (common abbreviation).
'pursuing' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'religious education' becomes 'RE' (abbreviation).
'a'+'ch'='ach'
'ach' put after 're' is 'REACH'.
(Other definitions for reach that I've seen before include "Arrive at (a place)" , "Get to < throw up in the old" , "Open stretch of water" , "Attain - continuous extent of water" , "Arrive at a point" .)