Sailor Small is in church, separate (7)

I believe the answer is:

abscise

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'separate' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with contact as well as being verbs in their base form.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I don't see?

'sailor small is in church' is the wordplay.
'sailor' becomes 'ab' (abbreviation for able seaman).
'small' becomes 's' (abbreviation - e.g. clothes size).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'church' becomes 'CE' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'is' put into 'ce' is 'cise'.
'ab'+'s'+'cise'='ABSCISE'

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I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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