Seek someone the church approves of for a date (5)
I believe the answer is:
tryst
'for a date' is the definition.
(tryst is a kind of date)
'seek someone the' is the wordplay.
'seek' becomes 'try' (synonyms).
'someone' becomes 's' (this could be a standard abbreviation I've not previously seen).
'the' becomes 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects).
'try'+'s'+'t'='TRYST'
'church approves of' is the link.
This may not be correct. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tryst that I've seen before include "Secret assignation" , "Romantic assignation" , "meeting-place" , "cattle-fair" , "Rendezvous - assignation" .)