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Dark grey church with religious type of Anabaptist leaders in Alabama (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

charcoal

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'dark grey' is the definition.
'charcoal' can be an answer for 'grey' (charcoal is a kind of grey). I am not certain of the 'dark' bit.

'church with religious type of anabaptist leaders in alabama' is the wordplay.
'church' becomes 'ch' (common abbreviation).
'with religious type' becomes 'rc' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'leaders' says to take the initial letters.
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'alabama' becomes 'al'.
The initial letters of 'of anabaptist' is 'oa'.
'rc'+'oa'='rcoa'
'rcoa' going into 'al' is 'arcoal'.
'ch'+'arcoal'='CHARCOAL'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for charcoal that I've seen before include "Fuel eg for barbecue" , "Sort of grey" , "Fuel made from burnt wood" , "What gets Barbie going" , "Fuel used for drawing" .)

I've seen this clue in the Irish Times.
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