Faith managed to keep priest in church (8)
I believe the answer is:
reliance
'faith' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'managed to keep priest in church' is the wordplay.
'managed' becomes 'ran' (both can mean organised or was in charge of).
'to keep' is an insertion indicator.
'priest' becomes 'eli' (biblical figure).
'in church' becomes 'ce' (abbreviation for Church of England. I am not sure about the 'in' bit.).
'ran' placed around 'eli' is 'relian'.
'relian'+'ce'='RELIANCE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for reliance that I've seen before include "Dependence, trust" , "Trust - in cereal (anag)" , "Banking" , "Dependence (on something)" , "Faith" .)