Gently stroke an individual's back during church memorial (8)
I believe the answer is:
cenotaph
'memorial' is the definition.
(I know that cenotaph is a type of memorial)
'gently stroke an individual's back during church' is the wordplay.
'gently' becomes 'p' (I've seen this in other clues).
'stroke an individual' becomes 'atone' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'back' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'during' indicates putting letters inside.
'church' becomes 'ch' (common abbreviation).
'p'+'atone'='patone'
'patone' backwards is 'enotap'.
'enotap' placed into 'ch' is 'CENOTAPH'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cenotaph that I've seen before include "Monument honouring persons buried elsewhere" , "Monument to the war dead" , "Tomb-like monument to people buried elsewhere" , "Monument to those killed in war" , "War memorial" .)