Wife leaves joiner for church official (5)
I believe the answer is:
elder
'church official' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'wife leaves joiner' is the wordplay.
'wife' becomes 'w'.
'leaves' suggests deleting specific letters.
'joiner' becomes 'welder' (I have seen 'Joiner of metals ' mean 'welder' so perhaps 'joiner' could also mean 'welder').
'welder' with 'w' taken out is 'ELDER'.
'for' is the link.
(Other definitions for elder that I've seen before include "Wise guy" , "Older person - one's senior" , "one with roots" , "More senior in years" , "comparatively aged" .)