- Published
In the detailed written instructions given to the young women who worked without pay in the then-Reverend Chris Brain's house, there was a revealing demand.
asserted
who → publish → house
The homebase team, as they were known, were to "do anything" the Church of England priest asked of them.
asserted
priest → know → them
Routine tasks - assigned on a rota 24 hours a day, seven days a week - included cooking, cleaning, ironing, shopping, looking after Brain's young daughter, and walking his dog.
asserted
tasks → assign → dog
This housework was intended to free Brain for his mission of leading the Nine O'Clock Service (NOS), a radical congregation of hundreds of young people drawn weekly to a Sheffield church in the 1980s and 1990s by a fusion of rave culture, live music, environmental activism and liturgy.
asserted
housework → intend → culture
But the lengthy list of homebase team duties did not spell out other demands Brain made in the attic bedroom of his family's end-terrace house in the suburb of Crookes, heard jurors at his retrial on charges of rape and indecent assault.
asserted
jurors → spell → rape
On Friday at Inner London Crown Court, the 69-year-old was found guilty of raping one woman in his congregation and four indecent assaults against three others.
asserted
old → find → others
He had already been convicted of 17 indecent assaults in August 2025 but faced a retrial as jurors could not reach verdicts on five further counts.
uncertain
jurors → convict → counts
Brain will be sentenced later this year and has been told he is facing a custodial term.
asserted
he → sentence → term
His sentencing will conclude a dramatic and protracted downfall for a preacher who at one point been preparing to take NOS global with expansion to the US.
asserted
who → conclude → US
The charismatic and domineering preacher, seen by many followers as a prophet, would routinely summon members of his congregation to "put him to bed" with sensual massages, jurors heard.
asserted
jurors → see → massages
Often Brain would strip to his underwear and expect kissing and sexual touching with the women, who feared being ostracised - or even damned - if they refused, the court heard.
"By displeasing Brain, you were displeasing God," explained one woman, who gave evidence last month during her former vicar's sexual assault trial.
asserted
who → strip → trial
The movement took root in the early 1980s when Brain, his wife Lynne and small group of like-minded Christian friends joined St Thomas's church in Crookes.
asserted
wife → take → Crookes
These dozen or so new worshippers - clustered around a band called Present Tense - were devout but disillusioned with traditional Anglican worship.
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worshippers → cluster → worship
Brain, their bassist and de facto leader, railed against "fancy golf club Christianity" which did not connect with them culturally.
asserted
which → rail → them
In 1984, the church's vicar Robert Warren gave the group an opportunity to run their own experimental service, every Sunday at 21:00.
asserted
vicar → give → 21:00
The band - who had played gigs across the north of England and performed before U2 at the Christian festival Greenbelt - ditched their evangelical rock songs in favour of a new sound influenced by Sheffield's burgeoning electronic music scene.
NOS was a sensation - attracting a youthful congregation of up to 600 people with an innovative blend of cutting-edge music, video, prayer, and dancing.
asserted
NOS → play → music
It's the best dance night in Sheffield," one worshipper told a 1990 BBC Radio 4 programme, which reported how NOS was "bridging the gap between the church and the people".
asserted
NOS → tell → church
One NOS member put it more bluntly in a TV documentary five years later: "We were sticking two fingers up to normal, middle-class church ways of behaviour."
asserted
We → put → behaviour
The Diocese of Sheffield, thrilled by the sight of students queueing down the road to worship to the pulsing sound of house music, fast-tracked Brain's route to priesthood despite the reservations of his ordination tutor.
asserted
students → thrill → tutor
The Archbishop of Canterbury told Brain he would be happy to see a NOS in every town and city in Britain.
asserted
he → tell → Britain
The services, which later moved to a larger space at Ponds Forge leisure centre, were a huge production involving a crew of up to 150 volunteers - among them musicians, sound technicians, designers, security, and a trucking team.
asserted
which → move → them
A new multimedia service was planned each week, with volunteers working unpaid throughout Sunday into the early hours of Monday morning to pull it off.
asserted
volunteers → plan → it
Warren, who had oversight of NOS in its first years at St Thomas's, told the court he initially believed Brain's"controlling" nature helped to get things done.
But as the popularity of NOS grew, the vicar noticed "cult-like elements" emerging.
asserted
elements → have → NOS
Brain's congregation seemed to look at him "almost as a guru," Warren said in evidence at Brain's first trial.
asserted
Warren → seem → trial
NOS members were expected to live simply and pay at least 10% of their income to the tight-knit and passionate community, though the court heard many gave more.
asserted
many → expect → more
Some handed over their inheritances and even houses.
asserted
Some → hand → inheritances
Brain, meanwhile, had a modern car, a mobile phone, designer clothes and went on expensive holidays.
asserted
Brain → have → holidays
In 1994, he moved his family to live in a renovated Peak District farmhouse which had been donated to NOS, jurors heard.
asserted
jurors → move → NOS
"He seemed to be living a luxurious lifestyle when other people are scrimping and scraping along," one NOS member told the court.
asserted
member → seem → court
Another, who estimated she had given £40,000 to NOS over seven years, recalled the "manipulative" Brain persuading her to skip her brother's wedding in South Africa and buy van for the community instead.
asserted
she → estimate → community
NOS members told the court they were expected to cut ties with family and friends outside the community.
asserted
they → tell → community
Jurors were told that one woman was reprimanded by Brain and other NOS leaders for going home to see her family on a weekend: "There were messages to the point of, 'This is your family now.
asserted
This → tell → point
Women gave evidence that Brain would "groom" them by pulling up to them on the street in his car and inviting them for a drive.
asserted
Brain → give → drive
On some occasions during this "Chris-napping" - as it was known in the community - he would touch the women and berate them for being sexually repressed, both trials were told.
asserted
trials → know → them
One victim recalled: "He grabbed my hand and put it on his thigh and he said, 'You fancy me don't you?'"
asserted
you → recall → me
After she replied 'no' and pulled her hand away, Brain shouted at her to get out of the car.
asserted
Brain → reply → car
The woman told the court she was left "distraught" and blamed her own "Catholic frigidity".
asserted
she → tell → frigidity
But later that night she said she got a call from Brain: "He was speaking in a gentle voice and asked if I could put him to bed."
uncertain
I → say → bed
In his defence Brain insisted there had been "nothing wrong" with members of his congregation giving him massages.
asserted
members → insist → massages
He told his second trial "close friends" had given him back rubs to relieve his tension and they had become sexual "very, very" rarely and always consensually.
asserted
they → tell → tension
…and 30 more, not listed.
The Aporia
