Friend not in the church for pseudoscience (9)
I believe the answer is:
palmistry
'for pseudoscience' is the definition.
(palmistry is a supposed method of fortune telling)
'friend not in the church' is the wordplay.
'friend' becomes 'pal' (pal can mean a friend).
'not' is a deletion indicator.
'the church' becomes 'ministry' (ministry can mean work of the church).
'ministry' with 'in' taken away is 'mistry'.
'pal'+'mistry'='PALMISTRY'
(Other definitions for palmistry that I've seen before include "Using hands to tell fortunes" , "Fortune-telling, otherwise known as chiromancy" , "Hand-reading" , "attempt to predict futures" , "form of clairvoyance" .)