Feeling dreadfully intense before church (9)
I believe the answer is:
sentience
'feeling' is the definition.
(something sentient is conscious or feeling)
'dreadfully intense before church' is the wordplay.
'dreadfully' indicates an anagram (a dreadful spelling).
'before' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'church' becomes 'CE' (Church of England).
'intense' with letters rearranged gives 'sentien'.
'sentien'+'ce'='SENTIENCE'
(Other definitions for sentience that I've seen before include "Feeling" , "Consciousness -- ten nieces (anag)" , "mind" , "Ability to feel things" , "awareness" .)