Crossword Genius

Just chilling outside church with lecturer (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

scarcely

'just' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'chilling outside church with lecturer' is the wordplay.
'chilling' becomes 'scary' ('scary' can be a synonym of 'chilling'**).
'outside' indicates putting letters inside.
'church' becomes 'ce' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'lecturer' becomes 'l'.
'ce'+'l'='cel'
'scary' enclosing 'cel' is 'SCARCELY'.

(Other definitions for scarcely that I've seen before include "Not quite" , "Barely, hardly" , "Almost not" , "Surely not" , "Only just or hardly even" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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