Push church seating back to accommodate end of cortege (5)
I believe the answer is:
sweep
'push' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'church seating back to accommodate end of cortege' is the wordplay.
'church seating' becomes 'pews' (I've seen this before).
'back' says the letters should be written backwards.
'to accommodate' indicates putting letters inside.
'end of' indicates one should take the final letters.
The last letter of 'cortege' is 'e'.
'pews' in reverse letter order is 'swep'.
'swep' placed around 'e' is 'SWEEP'.
(Other definitions for sweep that I've seen before include "Brush; rush" , "Expanse" , "do cleaning" , "Clean (eg chimney)" , "Use broom; Sooty's friend" .)