Empty, unfinished church in Pale (6)
I believe the answer is:
blanch
'pale' is the definition.
('blanch' can be a synonym of 'pale')
'empty unfinished church in' is the wordplay.
'empty' becomes 'blank' ('blank' can be similar in meaning to 'empty').
'unfinished' means to remove the last letter.
'church in' becomes 'ch' (common abbreviation. I am not sure about the 'in' bit.**).
'blank' with its last letter removed is 'blan'.
'blan'+'ch'='BLANCH'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for blanch that I've seen before include "Become white or pale, maybe with fright" , "Become like 17 Across, perhaps through fright" , "Scald briefly, then drain" , "Go white, lose facial colour" , "woman" .)