WIT welcomes Becky Garrison as a guest poster. Her full bio is available on her first post with our blog.
As I was researching current spiritual abuses for my forthcoming book Gaslighting for God: A Satirical Guide to Save Yourself from Spiritual Narcissists, this headline from the BBC popped up in my RSS feed on March 18, 2024: “Christopher Brain: Sheffield Priest in Court to Face 34 Sexual Abuse Charges.” After his trial began in July, on August 20, 2025, Brain was found guilty of at least 17 counts of indecent assault against multiple women with the Church of England issuing statements offering thoughts and prayers to the survivors. A documentary in the works will be released upon the completion of this trial.
When I read this headline my mind flashed back to the 1980s during my stint in the charismatic wing of the Episcopal Church USA in the mid-eighties. I kept hearing about some amazing alternative worship services happening in the United Kingdom. In particular, the Nine O’Clock Service in Sheffield emerged as the holiest of all holy hipster services. These cutting-edge worship experiences combined elements of religion with rave culture and environmental and social causes that attracted throngs of young adults, along with radical religious leaders like Matthew Fox, who presented his Cosmic Mass at the Nine O’Clock Service (NOS). For those unfamiliar with the UK worship scene, the Rev. Chris Brain—the priest just found guilty of indecent assault—led the NOS between 1986 and 1995. The book Rise and Fall of the Nine O’Clock Service chronicles the history of this venture.
After 1995, the NOS went dark with some whispers of abuses committed by Brain though his whereabouts remained unknown. Such was the manner in which most cases of clerical misconduct, as well as cases of sexual abuse in secular settings, were handled during this era. This dynamic became particularly evident in cases involving adult women where they were shamed for “allowing” the abuse to happen to them instead of exploring the power dynamics that permitted those like in power, such as ordained clergy, to misuse their pastoral authority in pursuit of their own needs.
This story, along with other abuses within mainline Protestantism seldom received news coverage, as the media focused their attention on abuses happening within more conservative settings such as the 1980s era televangelist scandals. Meanwhile, my explorations into new forms of church continued unaware of this scenario transpiring across the pond.
As I commented in A ‘Mixed Economy’ of Church in a Post-Christian Marketplace” (Reflections, Yale Divinity School, Fall 2009), a number of us left the U.S. charismatic crowd when it began lifting hands in support of the political right. Call it luck, fate, or the hand of God, but I reconnected with this global spirit in 2004 when I reported on the Hip Hop E Mass services transpiring in the Bronx. Soon I was introduced to the work of Jonny Baker, one of the leaders of Grace, a Christian alternative worship community in London. Jonny and his friends showed me how they had moved from planning cutting-edge worship services to forming actual Christian communities that explore a rule of life and other spiritual practices.
But then in 2021, South Yorkshire police announced that Brain was summonsed to Sheffield Magistrates court to face one count of rape and 33 counts of indecent assaults, alleged to have been committed while he was leading the NOS. As per The Times:
There were allegations of controlling behavior and followers handing over thousands of pounds while cutting themselves off from their friends and families. Young women were enlisted as ‘postmodern nuns’ in Brain’s Homebase Team. Some allegedly gave massages and engaged in sexual activity when putting him to bed. One member of the group, interviewed by the BBC, said: “He would talk about how we were discovering a postmodern definition of sexuality in the church. It’s just language—language covering up the fact of what was really going on: one bloke getting his rocks off.”
On his blog Surviving Church, Stephen Parsons details how the Church of England failed to grasp the charismatic nature of services like NOS where leaders like Brain justify their actions by claiming they hear the voice of God speaking to them. Parson reflects, “When we hear the expression ‘the Lord has spoken to me’, are we listening to an inflated ego or the promptings of the Holy Spirit?”
Church of England Responses to Clerical Abuses
Once the charges against Brain were made public, the Diocese of Sheffield established a dedicated webpage offering support to those impacted by the NOS. This webpage is in line with the Church of England’s national safeguarding program established to provide support and resources for those impacted by clerical abuses.
Also, Bishop Sophie Jelley, Bishop of Doncaster and Acting Bishop of Sheffield, offered this formal response to these allegations against Brain:
We understand just how much courage it takes for victims and survivors to come forward and we commend their bravery. We are committed to working with them in the way they need, both to enable their support and the support of those who have not yet felt able to come forward. We would strongly encourage any who are affected by today’s news to contact us here at the Diocese of Sheffield or to go directly to the police. Abuse of any kind is a source of great sorrow and especially in relation to the church. In the Diocese of Sheffield, we are working hard to try and ensure churches are safe and welcoming for all people. This is a responsibility we take extremely seriously.
This, however, is only one example of abuse that has occurred in the Church of England. In her book Sex, Power, Control: Responding to Abuse in the Institutional Church, Fiona Gardner, a church safeguarding adviser, drew parallels between Brain and Peter Ball, the disgraced bishop who indecently assaulted young men he had recruited to his monastic community. Gardner observes how “the hierarchy was willingly seduced by both men and embraced them even when serious doubts were raised about their authenticity.”
Unfortunately, Brian and Ball do not appear to be isolated incidents of abuses committed by clergy ordained by the Church of England. For example, safeguarding cases on file with the Church include Canon Andrew Hindley, Mike Pilavachi, and the late John Smythe. Also, the Church’s Safeguarding Practice Review (SPR) decided that while they will not reinvestigate the case against disgraced priest David Tudor, they will examine how the Church responded to his victims and survivors. In addition, the Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt. Rev. Dr John Perumbalath has stood down after allegations of sexual assault and harassment were made against him though he stated his resignation was not occasioned by fault or by any admission of liability.
In February 2025, the Church of England announced it would bring disciplinary proceedings against 10 clerics including former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, implementing recommendations from an abuse report last year. Furthermore, Justin Welby’s failure to respond properly to concerns raised about Smthye led to his resignation both as the Archbishop of Canterbury and an Anglican priest in November 2024. However, in his first public speech since announcing his resignation, Welby told the House of Lords a head had had to roll after a review criticized failings in the handling of the scandal. In response, abuse victims say they were “dismayed” and “disgusted” by the speech, saying it made no mention of remorse for survivors and struck too “frivolous” a tone with jokes. Also, his temporary successor, the Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell is facing calls to resign over his handling of the aforementioned David Tudor case.
To prevent future abuses of clerical power, the Church introduced a new discernment and selection process for ordained ministry that came into force in September 2021 with safeguarding ‘deeply embedded’ throughout the whole process, in the words of their Head of Discernment. Yet the Church rejected an independent safeguarding system.
In response to this new development, the Bishop of Stepney, Dr Joanne Grenfell, who is lead bishop for safeguarding, told the BBC, “I’m really disappointed, as were many, that Synod missed the opportunity to send an unequivocal message to victims and survivors and the wider nation that we hear their pain and concerns.” Parsons adds, “The Church’s continuing failure to fully understand how power operates in church structures has contributed to its weakening in British society over the past decades.”
Ecclesiastical Discipline Within the US Episcopal Church
While the Church of England is creating a system for accountability, to date the U.S. Episcopal Church does not have a comparable national system for reporting clerical abuses. The Church’s canons address ecclesiastical discipline under Title IV though to date Title IV appears to be applied primarily to priestly misconduct with any clerical training and oversight conducted at the diocesan level.
Today, we still face problems with reporting abuse and holding abusive clerics accountable. As I reported in The Baffler, “Sex-shaming culture that keeps women silent may be more prevalent in conservative churches; however, one can find a kinder, gentler form of male privilege that favors the abuser over the abused in more seemingly progressive Christian settings.” For example, I continue to hear anecdotal accounts of clerical abuses within the U.S. Episcopal Church and other mainline churches with almost all survivors choosing to remain silent out of fear their concerns will not be taken seriously. Along those lines, church observers like Brad Sargent have documented a pattern of abuses against women in the U.S. “emergent church,” a kind of faith-without-the-megachurch-decadence movement. Along those lines, these abuses remain largely unaddressed because those connected professionally to this network have chosen to align themselves with men in power instead of hearing the stories of those victimized.
A dedicated website established in 2024 was designed to increase the transparency of pending disciplinary cases involving bishops while also making it easier for the public to file complaints and navigate the church’s inquiry process. In practice, though, bishops such as Michael Handley, the former bishop of Oregon, are allowed to resign without properly addressing myriad concerns about abuses conducted either by them or priests they are supposedly supervising.
The tides may be turning though in a current case involving former Florida bishop John Howard where he is being accused by the attorney representing the US Episcopal Church of failing to cooperate with the Title IV proceedings leveled against him. (For the record, the concerns raised about Handley and Howard’s are not sexual in nature, thus bringing into question the proclivity to ignore abuses that do not involve sexual abuse and other forms of bodily injury.)
That said, overall the responses from church institutions point to a growing desire to provide a safe space to mitigate clerical concerns. True independent congregations are more susceptible to spiritual abuses than denominations because they have no institutional mechanism for prevention or enforcement. But all too often, this hierarchical structure produces ample opportunities for bishop butt kissing, pew posing, and other moves that point to celebrations of power, not prophecy. Without any actual changes in the policy and culture at the institutional level within both the Church of England and the U.S. Episcopal Church, clerical misconduct will undoubtedly continue.
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