Shunning an empty space by a new church (9)
I believe the answer is:
avoidance
'shunning' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'an empty space by a new church' is the wordplay.
'an' becomes 'a'.
'empty space' becomes 'void' (I've seen this before).
'by' says to put letters next to each other.
'a' becomes 'an'.
'new church' becomes 'ce' (abbreviation for Church of England. I am not sure about the 'new' bit.).
'a'+'void'+'an'+'ce'='AVOIDANCE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for avoidance that I've seen before include "Steering clear of" , "Evasion" , "The shunning of something undesirable, like tax" , "Not dealing with" , "ducking" .)