Paint a verbal picture of some French member in church (8)
I believe the answer is:
describe
'paint a verbal picture' is the definition.
'describe' can be an answer for 'paint' (I've seen this before). I'm unsure of the 'a verbal picture' bit.
'some french member in church' is the wordplay.
'some french' becomes 'des' ('some' in French).
'member' becomes 'rib' (I have seen 'structural member' mean 'rib' so perhaps 'member' could also mean 'rib').
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'church' becomes 'CE' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'rib' going into 'ce' is 'cribe'.
'des'+'cribe'='DESCRIBE'
'of' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for describe that I've seen before include "Give an account of in words" , "Outline" , "Draw (figure); give account of" , "Report in detail" , "Draw (a geometrical figure)" .)