Water, symbolically, seen by church to create spirit (5)
I believe the answer is:
hooch
'spirit' is the definition.
(I know that hooch is a type of spirit)
'water symbolically seen by church' is the wordplay.
'water symbolically' becomes 'hoo' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'seen by' says to put letters next to each other.
'church' becomes 'ch' (common abbreviation).
'hoo'+'ch'='HOOCH'
'to create' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hooch that I've seen before include "Illicit alcohol" , "Strong illicit liquor" , "alcoholic drink" , "banned alcohol" , "Illicitly distilled spirit" .)