Fine type of pottery is evident around sides of older church (9)
I believe the answer is:
porcelain
'fine type of pottery' is the definition.
(porcelain is a type of pottery)
'evident around sides of older church' is the wordplay.
'evident' becomes 'plain' (synonyms).
'around' is an insertion indicator.
'sides of' means to remove the middle letters (only the letters on the sides remain).
'church' becomes 'CE' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'older' with its middle removed is 'or'.
'or'+'ce'='orce'
'plain' placed around 'orce' is 'PORCELAIN'.
'is' is the link.
(Other definitions for porcelain that I've seen before include "Fine white China" , "Translucent pottery" , "Crockery" , "Form of ceramic" , "Fine ceramic ware" .)