Work for church area, getting round a formal curse (8)
I believe the answer is:
anathema
'formal curse' is the definition.
'anathema' can be an answer for 'curse' (anathema can mean a curse). I'm not sure about the 'formal' bit.
'work for church area getting round a' is the wordplay.
'work' becomes 'anthem' (musical work).
'for' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'church area' becomes 'a' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'getting round' indicates putting letters inside.
'anthem'+'a'='anthema'
'anthema' placed around 'a' is 'ANATHEMA'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for anathema that I've seen before include "hated person" , "Formal curse leading to excommunication" , "Something very greatly disliked" , "Curse; object of loathing" , "Abomination, bugbear" .)