Priest concern reports led to rebuke, court hears

The Bishop of Sheffield rebuked a clergyman who raised concerns about a "cult" in which a priest allegedly abused women in his congregation, a court has heard.
Dr Mark Stibbe said he was accused of starting a "witch hunt" after he warned then-bishop David Lunn about Chris Brain's Nine O'Clock Service (NOS).
Dr Stibbe, former curate of St Thomas Crookes Church where NOS was initially held, told Mr Brain's trial that he wrote to the bishop after witnessing "extremely disturbing" services featuring "scantily clad young girls gyrating" .
Mr Brain, 68, is on trial at Inner London Crown Court accused of one rape and 36 indecent assaults against 13 women between 1981 and 1995. He denies all charges.
NOS was initially lauded by Church of England leaders for attracting hundreds of young people to its congregation with nightclub-style evangelical services in Sheffield featuring live music, progressive theology and multimedia.
But it collapsed in acrimony in 1995 amid allegations Mr Brain, now of Park Road in Wilmslow, Cheshire, had abused members of his congregation, including women who were expected to clean his house and "put him to bed" with "sexual favours", prosecutors have told the jury.
Giving evidence on the second day of the trial, Dr Stibbe said he had written to Bishop Lunn after attending a NOS service at Ponds Forge sports complex in Sheffield, where the group had relocated in 1993 due to its growing popularity.
Dr Stibbe, who was vicar at a different Sheffield church by this time, added: "There were elements of it that deeply disturbed me and I felt it wasn't properly accountable.
"I remember stating to him that if he didn't step in and truly discern what was going on in the community there would be disaster in one year."
Bishop Lunn responded with "a reprimand, a rebuke" saying "we don't conduct witch hunts in the diocese", Dr Stibbe told the court.
"So I really had my ecclesiastical wrists slapped," he added.
Dr Stibbe said concerns had also been raised about NOS in a 1992 staff meeting at St Thomas in which a colleague highlighted the "negative optics" of "scantily clad Lycra-wearing pretty young women, as he put it, coming to and from Mr Brain's house on a regular basis to perform domestic duties".
He said the man, a financial administrator, "got a roasting" for asking if there was "anything untoward" going on.
Dr Stibbe said church staff took the view that if Robert Warren, the church's canon who had oversight of NOS, was not going to intervene "then we had no business doing so".
Training 'fast-tracked'
The trial also heard evidence from a retired priest who raised concerns about Mr Brain while serving as his personal tutor during his ordination training between 1990 to 1991.
Mr Brain was fast-tracked by the Diocese of Sheffield, becoming a priest just a year after beginning training compared to the usual three or four, the court heard.
Marilyn Parry told the court Mr Brain would miss deadlines and be absent at short notice and she struggled to contact him "because when I rang the number I had for him his phone always seemed to be answered by a group of young women who seemed to be protecting him".
One one occasion Rev Parry was told Mr Brain could not come to the phone because he was receiving a massage from a female member of his team, the court heard.
She said was "very shocked" and found this "inappropriate".
Rev Parry said she raised her concerns about Mr Brain with senior tutors on the Northern Ordination Course and the Diocese of Sheffield but was told "he should be given some slack".
She said Stephen Lowe, then Archdeacon of Sheffield, "told me I should stop voicing my concerns" because Mr Brain "was doing very important work with young people who were not usually coming to church".
Rev Parry refused to sign off Mr Brain's ordination but was overruled by the course's principal, who signed it off himself, the court heard.
'Life of luxury'
The court heard senior figures in the Diocese of Sheffield had been excited by NOS's popularity with young people, with a regular congregation of 400 attending by the time the service moved to Ponds Forge.
At one service Bishop Lunn led the confirmation of 96 NOS members, which Rev Warren said was "the largest group that we had ever confirmed in one church".
Rev Warren who said allegations about Mr Brain's abuse "came as a total shock" to him, though he admitted he had a sense of "cult-like elements" emerging in NOS.
Giving evidence over video link, he said he had noted "a sort of controlling of people and a focus on Chris Brain almost as a sort of guru".
NOS members who also gave evidence on Tuesday said Mr Brain appeared to enjoy a "life of luxury" compared to others in the group, who were expected to pay 10% of their income to the movement.
Rachel Roberts, who told the court she at one point worked 70 hours without pay for NOS, said Mr Brain had "a lavish car, he had a mobile phone before I knew anyone with a mobile phone, he had a team around him who dressed him in the best clothes".
The trial continues.
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