Explained: Who was Chris Brain and what was the Nine O’Clock Service?

Chris Brain, leader of the now-disgraced Nine O’Clock Service (NOS) has been convicted of multiple counts of indecent assault. It is the latest scandal to rock the CofE and once again poses questions around complaints that were ignored for years

The head of a pioneering church movement in the 1980s and 90s has been convicted of sexually assaulting multiple members of his congregation. Chris Brain’s Nine O’clock Service (NOS) was hailed as revolutionary by the Church of England at the time but later collapsed amid accusations of misconduct – which decades later have led to Brain’s convictions.

In 1986, Brain – then lead singer of a Christian rock band – started a new church service at a large charismatic evangelical church in Sheffield called St Thomas Crookes. It met late at night and soon became known as the Nine O’clock Service or NOS.