Take steps around church heading for nave with sign of stress (6)
I believe the answer is:
accent
'sign of stress' is the definition.
'accent' can be an answer for 'stress' ('accent' can be a synonym of 'stress'). I am not sure about the 'sign of' bit.
'take steps around church heading for nave' is the wordplay.
'take steps' becomes 'act' ('act' can be a synonym of 'take steps').
'around' is an insertion indicator.
'church' becomes 'ce' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'heading for' indicates taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'nave' is 'n'.
'ce'+'n'='cen'
'act' enclosing 'cen' is 'ACCENT'.
'with' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for accent that I've seen before include "Distinctive way of talking" , "Place stress on, say a syllable" , "it could be grave" , "Emphasise" , "A localised way of speaking" .)