Taking refuge initially in damp church, villain (6)
I believe the answer is:
wretch
'villain' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'taking refuge initially in damp church' is the wordplay.
'taking' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'initially' indicates taking the first letters.
'in damp' becomes 'wet' ('wet' can be similar in meaning to 'damp'. I am not sure about the 'in' bit.**).
'church' becomes 'ch' (common abbreviation).
The initial letter of 'refuge' is 'r'.
'r' going into 'wet' is 'wret'.
'wret'+'ch'='WRETCH'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for wretch that I've seen before include "Poor, pitiable person" , "Poor devil" , "Disreputable person" , "Unhappy person" , "Miserable fellow" .)