Control in chimney originally needed on top of church (9)
I believe the answer is:
influence
'control' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'in chimney originally needed on top of church' is the wordplay.
'chimney' becomes 'flue' (I've seen this before).
'originally' suggests taking the first letters.
'on top of' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'church' becomes 'CE' (Church of England).
The initial letter of 'needed' is 'n'.
'in'+'flue'+'n'+'ce'='INFLUENCE'
(Other definitions for influence that I've seen before include "Power to affect persons or events" , "Effect" , "required to pull strings" , "good offices" , "Sway, dominance" .)