Units in church books I encountered with reserve (11)
I believe the answer is:
centimetres
'units' is the definition.
(centimetre is a kind of unit)
'church books i encountered with reserve' is the wordplay.
'church' becomes 'CE' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'books' becomes 'NT' (abbreviation for New Testament).
'encountered' becomes 'met' ('meet' can be a synonym of 'encounter').
'with reserve' becomes 'res' (abbreviation for reserve. I am not sure about the 'with' bit.).
'ce'+'nt'+'i'+'met'+'res'='CENTIMETRES'
'in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for centimetres that I've seen is " measures".)