One standing by as church abandons service during break … (9)
I believe the answer is:
reservist
'one standing by' is the definition.
The answer is a person as well as being a singular noun. This is suggested by the definition.
'church abandons service during break' is the wordplay.
'church' becomes 'ce' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'abandons' is a deletion indicator.
'during' indicates putting letters inside.
'break' becomes 'rest' (resting is a kind of breaking**).
'service' with 'ce' removed is 'servi'.
'servi' inserted into 'rest' is 'RESERVIST'.
'as' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for reservist that I've seen before include "Soldier called up when needed" , "Soldier able to be called up" , "one of 51 [THETA] ?" , "One liable for call-up" , "Back-up soldier" .)