Lapse before church and after (5)
I believe the answer is:
since
'after' is the definition.
(I've seen this in other clues)
'lapse before church' is the wordplay.
'lapse' becomes 'sin' (I've seen this in other clues).
'before' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'church' becomes 'ce' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'sin'+'ce'='SINCE'
'and' is the link.
(Other definitions for since that I've seen before include "Seeing that" , "From that time one" , "in the past" , "Because; ago" .)