Rising power to do penance in church and sepulchral monument (8)
I believe the answer is:
cenotaph
'sepulchral monument' is the definition.
'cenotaph' can be an answer for 'monument' (cenotaph is a kind of monument). I am unsure of the 'sepulchral' bit.
'rising power to do penance in church' is the wordplay.
'rising' shows that the letters should be reversed in order (letters written upwards in a down clue).
'power' becomes 'p' (symbol in physics).
'to do penance' becomes 'atone' (to do penance is to atone for something).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'church' becomes 'ch' (common abbreviation).
'p'+'atone'='patone'
'patone' back-to-front is 'enotap'.
'enotap' going into 'ch' is 'CENOTAPH'.
'and' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cenotaph that I've seen before include "Feature of Whitehall" , "Monument built to honour soldiers who died in war" , "Monument honouring persons buried elsewhere" , "Whitehall monument" , "Monument to people whose remains are interred elsewhere" .)