Testimony of Reverend Robert Warren¹

Reverend Robert Warren, a former vicar at St Thomas’ Church where NOS was hosted, told the court that the allegations of abuse “came as a total shock”. However, he admitted he had a sense of “cult-like elements” emerging within the group. When asked to explain this, he described “Just a sort of controlling of people and a focus on Chris Brain almost as a sort of guru”.

The court heard there was “a sense of deference to Chris Brain that if you asked people about the service they would always say, well what Chris thinks is or what Chris wants is”. Rev. Warren noted that his relationship with Brain became “more difficult and tense”² as NOS looked to move away from St Thomas’ Church. At its peak, NOS had 400 regular worshippers and was considered “exciting and innovative for the Church of England”.

Testimony of Mark Stibbe

Mark Stibbe, who was a curate at St Thomas’s Church, gave evidence on Wednesday. After leaving the church, he attended a later NOS service and found it “extremely disturbing”¹. He told the court, “The reason I found it disturbing is that the things that had been reported from the Greenbelt Festival about girls gyrating in scantily clad costume in a worship context, that is what I was seeing in this context”¹.

When asked if the women were willing participants, Dr. Stibbe told jurors: “This is the thing that concerns me. I couldn’t tell”. He felt it was a “graphic, vivid contradiction to have young women behaving in what looked like a controlled manner”¹.

The court heard¹ that concerns were raised about Brain welcoming “‘scantily clad, lycra-wearing’ followers to his home”. Dr. Stibbe recounted how a church official questioned “the negative optics… of scantily clad, lycra-wearing pretty young women as he put it coming to and from Chris Brain’s house on a regular basis to perform ‘domestic duties’”. The man who asked if there was “anything untoward” about it subsequently “got a ‘roasting’”.

Dr. Stibbe said³ he wrote to the then Bishop of Sheffield, David Lunn, to warn that without intervention there would be “disaster within one year”. He told the court he received a reprimand in response: “we did not conduct witch hunts in the diocese. So I really had my ecclesiastical wrists slapped”.

Testimony of Reverend Marilyn Parry

The court also heard³ from Rev. Marilyn Parry, Brain’s personal tutor during his ordination training. She described Brain as an “arrogant” student who was often absent. She told jurors she raised issues with senior tutors but they felt Brain should be given some slack because he was “doing important work”. She testified that Brain was being “fast tracked through the process” of ordination, which she felt “was a mistake”¹. Rev. Parry also recalled having difficulty contacting Brain by phone, and “was told he couldn’t come to the call because one or the other members of the [homebase] team was giving him a massage. It didn’t seem appropriate kind of behaviour in an ordinand.”³ Upon her formal object to the Archdeacon of Sheffield, Rev Stephen Lowe, Parry said: “He told me I should stop voicing concerns because Mr Brain was doing very important work with young people who were generally not coming to church”³.

The trial continues

Footnotes

1. Ellie Ng, “Former priest led movement with ‘extremely disturbing’ services, court hears” The Independent, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/sheffield-cheshire-church-of-england-inner-london-crown-court-b2781188.html (accessed 3rd July 2025). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

2. Sophie Corcoran, “Reverend speaks of ‘difficult’ relationship with NOS and Christopher Brain” Yorkshire Live https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/local-news/reverend-describes-difficult-relationship-nos-31975987 (accessed 3rd July 2025) ↩

3. Sean O’Neill, “Vicar who warned about ‘rave church’ leader was reprimanded” The Times https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/vicar-who-warned-about-rave-church-leader-was-reprimanded-frz7lmxdg (accessed 3rd July) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴