Cut down on church work (4)
I believe the answer is:
chop
'cut down' is the definition.
'chop' can be an answer for 'down' (thesaurus). I am not sure about the 'cut' bit.
'on church work' is the wordplay.
'on' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'church' becomes 'ch' (common abbreviation).
'work' becomes 'op' (common abbreviation for 'opus').
'ch'+'op' is 'CHOP'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for chop that I've seen before include "Reduce drastically" , "Thick slice of meat including rib" , "Cut - a piece of meat" , "Dissect" , "Use a cleaver" .)