English liturgy adopted at first around Republican state (7)
I believe the answer is:
eritrea
'state' is the definition.
(Eritrea is an example)
'english liturgy adopted at first around republican' is the wordplay.
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'liturgy' becomes 'rite' (I've seen this before).
'at first' indicates taking the first letters.
'around' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'republican' becomes 'r' (abbreviation).
The initial letter of 'adopted' is 'a'.
'rite'+'a'='ritea'
'ritea' placed around 'r' is 'ritrea'.
'e'+'ritrea'='ERITREA'
(Other definitions for eritrea that I've seen before include "African country, capital Asmara" , "It declared its independence from Ethiopia in 1993" , "Eire art (anag)" , "North-east African state" , "Country to the north of Ethiopia" .)