Rave culture, lycra ‘nuns’ and ‘sexual healing’: Inside the evangelical cult left unchecked in the Church of England
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Typed neatly on headed notepaper, the instructions for Reverend Christopher Brain’s “homebase team” were clear.
The group of predominantly young, attractive women, who had devoted themselves to a church movement they believed was changing the world, were “to do anything” their leader required.
This included preparing his meals, cleaning his home, looking after his child, “honouring and praying” for him and always putting his needs before their own.
It also required them to sleep at his house for up two nights per week as part of a 24 hour, seven-day rota of unpaid work to leave him free to spread the word about the mission of the Nine O’Clock Service (NOS).
Brain had been tipped for a great future in the Church of England after his revolutionary “rave-style” worship attracted hundreds of young people to his 9pm services in Sheffield. He was preparing to take the movement across the Atlantic to San Francisco.
Detailed lists of homebase team duties included washing, ironing, mopping the floor, walking his bull terrier, Badger, and answering the phone. Although they were to prepare his meals – including a dessert – they were instructed to eat after Brain and his wife unless they were explicitly invited to join them.
But, sadly, the demands placed on some women who found themselves in Brain’s church movement did not stop there.
Despite most not believing in sex before marriage, many were expected to give “sensual” massages to the controlling and charismatic evangelical preacher, who told the women he was helping them to overcome their sexual repression.
He was usually in his underwear during the late-night back rubs to relieve “tension headaches” in the attic bedroom of his marital home, which was paid for, decorated and meticulously maintained by NOS.
The women, who were sometimes referred to as “the Lycra Lovelies” or “the Lycra Nuns” because of the revealing clothes they wore while they cleaned, feared they would be ostracised if they refused. Many believed he was a form of prophet and one admitted she viewed him as “almost a God”.
This week, 30 years after his evangelical cult operating in the Church of England collapsed in controversy, he was found guilty of abusing nine women.
The 68-year-old, who until recently ran a design consultancy in Wilmslow, Cheshire, told the jury he was the “most radical ordained vicar there was” as he defended his sexual encounters with women in his congregation.
“I wasn’t a traditional vicar, I was someone on a journey of radical research and experimentation,” he said, as he insisted any sexual contact with the women was consensual and disputed other incidents ever took place.
A panel of eight men and three women found him guilty of 17 counts of indecent assault against nine women between 1981 and 1995 following a seven-week trial at Inner London Crown Court. He was acquitted of 15 further counts of the same offence.
The jury was discharged without reaching verdicts for one count of rape and four more counts of indecent assault. Prosecutors now have 14 day to decide whether they seek a retrial on those counts.
Content retrieved from: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/chris-brain-nine-oclock-service-cult-b2806318.html.
