Empty Anglican Church following American custom (6)
I believe the answer is:
usance
'custom' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'empty anglican church following american' is the wordplay.
'empty' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'church' becomes 'ce' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'following' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'american' becomes 'us'.
'anglican' with its centre taken out is 'an'.
'an'+'ce'='ance'
'ance' after 'us' is 'USANCE'.
(Other definitions for usance that I've seen before include "interest in literature" , "practice" , "time for payment" , "Time allowed to pay" , "redemption period" .)