Spirits seen in German city church steeple's entrance (8)
I believe the answer is:
essences
'spirits' is the definition.
(the spirit of something is its essential character)
'german city church steeple's entrance' is the wordplay.
'german city' becomes 'essen' (I've seen this before).
'church' becomes 'ce' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'entrance' indicates taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'steeples' is 's'.
'essen'+'ce'+'s'='ESSENCES'
'seen in' is the link.
(Other definitions for essences that I've seen before include "Perfumes of concentrates" , "Extracts or fundamental natures" , "Plant extracts" , "Concentrated extracts of plants, for perfume say" , "Inner natures for perfumes" .)