Mate should keep a short chronicle of vicar's work (8)
I believe the answer is:
pastoral
'of vicar's work' is the definition.
(pastoral can mean relating to a vicar's duties)
'mate should keep a short chronicle' is the wordplay.
'mate' becomes 'pal' (I've seen this before).
'should keep' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'short' means to remove the last letter.
'chronicle' becomes 'story' (synonyms).
'story' with its final letter removed is 'stor'.
'a'+'stor'='astor'
'pal' placed around 'astor' is 'PASTORAL'.
(Other definitions for pastoral that I've seen before include "Type of poem" , "Idyllic" , "of minister's duties" , "(Poem) of country life" , "Country style" .)