Religious ceremony after southern song (9)
I believe the answer is:
spiritual
'song' is the definition.
(I know that spiritual is a type of religious song)
'religious ceremony after southern' is the wordplay.
'religious' becomes 'pi' (british abbreviation for pious).
'ceremony' becomes 'ritual' (I've seen this before).
'after' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'southern' becomes 's' (abbreviation).
'pi'+'ritual'='piritual'
'piritual' after 's' is 'SPIRITUAL'.
(Other definitions for spiritual that I've seen before include "lords" , "Relating to the sacred or the soul" , "Relating to the soul rather than the body" , "Relating to the holy or divine" , "concerning religion" .)