Report of a bishop held by state (9)
I believe the answer is:
narration
'report' is the definition.
(I know that narration is a type of report)
'a bishop held by state' is the wordplay.
'bishop' becomes 'rr' (abbreviation for Right Reverend).
'held by' indicates putting letters inside.
'state' becomes 'nation' (both can mean a country).
'a'+'rr'='arr'
'arr' inserted inside 'nation' is 'NARRATION'.
'of' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for narration that I've seen before include "Story" , "Voice-over in film" , "Spoken account" , "Process of storytelling" , "telling" .)