Mingle in company having drinks before church (8)
I believe the answer is:
coalesce
'mingle' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'company having drinks before church' is the wordplay.
'company' becomes 'co' (abbreviation).
'having' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'drinks' becomes 'ales' (I've seen this before).
'before' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'church' becomes 'ce' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'co'+'ales'+'ce'='COALESCE'
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for coalesce that I've seen before include "Join into one mass" , "blend" , "'Fuse, combine (8)'" , "Make one whole" , "Come together in one mass" .)