Rock-star REV who could trigger Church of England’s #MeToo moment

Jul 24, 2021 by

by David Leafe, Mailonline:

HE late-night telephone calls were not at all what you would expect from a Church of England vicar contacting female members of his congregation.

Summoning selected women to his lavishly appointed home in Sheffield, the Reverend Chris Brain wanted help with what became known as ‘putting him to bed’. At the very least this meant giving him a massage, often while he was naked.

For some of his young followers, it stopped there. But for others, the encounters are said to have gone much further, with kissing and cuddling leading to intimacy described by one as covering ‘the whole spectrum of abuse’.

And Brain, a married father of one who was then approaching 40 — so about twice the age of some of his alleged victims — did not confine himself to nocturnal massage sessions.

His every need was attended to by an inner circle of miniskirted ‘nuns’. And scanty clothing was also in evidence at his rave-like Nine O’Clock Service (NOS), which began each Sunday night at 9pm for nearly a decade.

With bikini-clad dancers cavorting on stage, some technical wizardry and celebratory dance music, the Nine O’Clock Service was designed to attract youngsters more used to clubbing than churchgoing. But although it was a great success, pulling in large congregations at a time when many churches struggled to fill a few pews, NOS collapsed in 1995 after complaints about Brain’s activities.

No further action was taken against him at that time. But this month it was revealed that, following the emergence of the MeToo movement, the Church has recently been contacted by women who gave ‘harrowing testimonies’ about their experiences at his hands.

It is thought dozens of others are preparing to come forward with allegations of sexual exploitation and psychological abuse; and church authorities are braced for a flood of claims for damages.

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