Head of Church, with false doom words, stirred up the prospect of imminent calamity! (5,2,8)
I believe the answer is:
sword of damocles
'prospect of imminent calamity' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'head of church with false doom words stirred up' is the wordplay.
'head of' says to take the initial letters.
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'stirred up' indicates an anagram (letters get stirred up or mixed).
The initial letter of 'church' is 'c'.
'false'+'doom'+'words'='falsedoomwords'
'c' after 'falsedoomwords' is 'falsedoomwordsc'.
'falsedoomwordsc' is an anagram of 'SWORD OF DAMOCLES'.
'the' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sword of damocles that I've seen before include "Imminently impending peril, disaster" , "It was perilously poised overhead" , "Impending threat" , "imminent threat" , "precarious situation" .)