Tracey and Jean regularly before church cardinal (8)
I believe the answer is:
eminence
'cardinal' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'tracey and jean regularly before church' is the wordplay.
'tracey' becomes 'Emin' (Tracey Emin the British artist).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'regularly' means one should take alternating letters (regularly take one letter, leave next etc.).
'before' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'church' becomes 'CE' (abbreviation for Church of England).
The alternate letters of 'jean' are 'en'.
'emin'+'en'+'ce'='EMINENCE'
(Other definitions for eminence that I've seen before include "High status importance" , "station" , "Esteem" , "High prestige for cardinal?" , "Position of higher distinction" .)