Crossword Genius

Ungodliness faces Church following (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

since

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'following' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'ungodliness faces church' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'ungodliness' could be 'sin' (a sin is an ungodly act) and 'sin' is found in the answer.
'church' could be 'ce' (abbreviation for Church of England) and 'ce' is found in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for since that I've seen before include "Seeing that" , "From that time one" , "Because; ago" , "in the past" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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