Line in front of church recess for sin (5)
I believe the answer is:
lapse
'sin' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'line in front of church recess' is the wordplay.
'line' becomes 'l'.
'in front of' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'church recess' becomes 'apse' (I've seen this before).
'l'+'apse'='LAPSE'
'for' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for lapse that I've seen before include "Slight error as caused by inattention" , "breach of protocol?" , "Slight error due to forgetfulness" , "Negligence" , "Slip; sounds like circuits" .)