Grass edging church official cut short (5)
I believe the answer is:
verge
'grass edging' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'church official cut short' is the wordplay.
'church official' becomes 'verger' (I've seen this before).
'cut short' means to remove the last letter.
'verger' with its last letter taken away is 'VERGE'.
(Other definitions for verge that I've seen before include "Grassy road edge" , "Grass edging" , "Grass edge to road" , "Margin or brink" , "Margin, edge" .)