Welcome!
Dark elves can be nice clerics for sure, but as you have discovered already, you will have that strength problem. If you want to minimize that, you can try a dwarf cleric which would have the same wisdom starting score (but you wont have that nice hide ability).
Personally i just started a little cleric as well. Mine is halfling cause i thought the combination of hide + sneak would be really nice on a cleric (its also a bit stronger than DE). So, if the weight issue is "crushing" you, consider restarting. But of course there are other solutions... light gear, gear with str, having a druid or shaman as a partner who can buff you (or even an enchanter)...
There are some low level options to make nice money. At first bone chips come to mind. The sell for 10pp a stack to players. A bit later kill wisps. Don't sell the greater light stones immediately, do this quest with them:
http://wiki.project1999.com/Evil_Research (there is a good version as well)
And then sell the quest result. Will be worth much more than before.
I would not worry too much about money at the start though. Later getting money gets easier and you don't really need great gear for quite some time.