It was turned over to the church (5)
I believe the answer is:
tithe
'church' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't see how they can define each other.
'it was turned over to the' is the wordplay.
'was' becomes 'eh' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'turned over' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'to' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (I've seen this in other clues).
'the' becomes 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects).
'eh' back-to-front is 'he'.
'it'+'he'='ithe'
'ithe' put after 't' is 'TITHE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tithe that I've seen before include "Tenth part - old tax" , "One tenth - old church tax" , "Tax once levied" , "financial contribution" , "Charge" .)