It contains alcohol, bringing dire distress to a church leader (5)
I believe the answer is:
cider
'it contains alcohol' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'dire distress to a church leader' is the wordplay.
'distress' is an anagram indicator.
'to a' means one lot of letters go next to another (I've seen this in other clues).
'leader' indicates taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'church' is 'c'.
'dire' anagrammed gives 'ider'.
'ider' after 'c' is 'CIDER'.
'bringing' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cider that I've seen before include "Drink made from apple juice" , "Alcohol from apples" , "Scrumpy" , "Pear drink" , "Drink made from pears" .)