Country retreat houses a minister (5,4)
I believe the answer is:
rural dean
'minister' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'country retreat houses a' is the wordplay.
'country' becomes 'rural' (similar in meaning).
'retreat' becomes 'den' (both can mean a lair or hideout).
'houses' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'den' going around 'a' is 'dean'.
'rural'+'dean'='RURAL DEAN'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for rural dean that I've seen is " Supervisory clergyman".)