Sense corruption by church centre (7)
I believe the answer is:
essence
'centre' is the definition.
'sense corruption by church' is the wordplay.
'corruption' indicates an anagram.
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'church' becomes 'ce' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'sense' with letters rearranged gives 'essen'.
'essen'+'ce'='ESSENCE'
(Other definitions for essence that I've seen before include "Core, most vital part" , "Concentrated liquid flavouring" , "Crux" , "The most distinctive element" , "Plant extract or concentrate" .)