A church-woman from the country (5)
I believe the answer is:
china
'the country' is the definition.
(China is an example)
'a church-woman' is the wordplay.
'a church' becomes 'ch' (common abbreviation).
'woman' becomes 'ina' ().
'ch'+'ina'='CHINA'
'from' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for china that I've seen before include "Where one regularly unloads junk" , "Oriental country" , "Household ceramics" , "Friend (rhyming slang)" , "Porcelain articles" .)