Surplus vehicle carrying silver by church in excess (12)
I believe the answer is:
extravagance
'excess' is the definition.
(I know that extravagance is a type of excess)
'surplus vehicle carrying silver by church' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'surplus' could be 'extra' (synonyms) and 'extra' is found in the answer.
'silver' could be 'ag' (Ag is the chemical symbol for silver) and 'ag' is found within the answer.
'vehicle' could be 'van' (type of vehicle) and 'van' is located in the leftover letters.
'church' could be 'ce' (Church of England) and 'ce' is present in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for extravagance that I've seen before include "lavish generosity" , "Excess" , "Lavish expenditure (E, not Y)" , "high consumption" , "Overspending" .)