Intrinsic feature of German city church (7)
I believe the answer is:
essence
'intrinsic feature' is the definition.
'german city church' is the wordplay.
'german city' becomes 'essen' (city in Germany).
'church' becomes 'CE' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'essen'+'ce'='ESSENCE'
'of' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for essence that I've seen before include "Distinctive inner nature of person or thing" , "Nitty-gritty" , "Extract (eg, of vanilla)" , "Crux" , "Characteristic nature" .)