Crossword Genius

Country church needing help without one (4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

chad

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'country' is the definition.
(Chad is an example)

'church needing help without one' is the wordplay.
'church' becomes 'ch' (common abbreviation).
'needing help' becomes 'd' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'without' means one lot of letters goes inside another ('without' can be similar in meaning to 'outside').
'one' becomes 'a'.
'ch'+'d'='chd'
'chd' placed around 'a' is 'CHAD'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for chad that I've seen before include "hanging has helped elect president?" , "Feature of controversial election once" , "cartoon character" , "N.Central African Republic" , "small piece forcibly removed" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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