Crossword Genius

Thus female must enter church on time (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

thence

'thus' is the definition.
(I know that thus can be written as thence)

'female must enter church on time' is the wordplay.
'female' becomes 'hen' (female chicken).
'must enter' is an insertion indicator.
'church' becomes 'CE' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'on' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'time' becomes 't' (abbreviation).
'ce' after 't' is 'tce'.
'hen' inserted within 'tce' is 'THENCE'.

(Other definitions for thence that I've seen before include "from that time" , "From that point" , "From that place" , "It follows" , "As a consequence" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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