Plenty of waste exposed in American church (9)
I believe the answer is:
affluence
'plenty' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'waste exposed in american church' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'american' could be 'a' (common abbreviation - e.g. in organisation names) and 'a' is present in the answer.
'church' could be 'ce' (abbreviation for Church of England) and 'ce' is located in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'of' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for affluence that I've seen before include "Plenty" , "Fortune" , "Abundant wealth" , "Prosperity or wealth" , "Wealth - abundance" .)