Nine O'Clock Service

The Nine O'Clock Service (or NOS for short) was a youth-oriented alternative Christian worship service started, in the aftermath of a 1985 John Wimber Signs and Wonders conference in Sheffield, in 1986 at St. Thomas' church in Crookes, Sheffield, United Kingdom by a group of christian musicians.

Beginning as a simple alternative format service under the leadership of Chris Brain, the group responsible for it developed leadership structure that was endorsed by St Thomas' church leadership, the then Archdeacon of Sheffield Stephen Lowe, the then Bishop of Sheffield David Lunn and various other leading Anglican clerics.

Initially plans were made to follow Vineyard model and plant small churches in other urban centres in the UK, but this plan was subverted and the Service never left Sheffield. The average age for a member was 24 for much of NOS's lifespan which baffled many in the Anglican church at that time (the demographic profile of average Anglican membership at that time was at its lowest for 24 year-olds). The membership was significantly from non-church backgrounds. Eventually it developed into a destructive cultish organisation before it was shut down by its own members in 1995, after allegations of sexual impropriety and unaccountability. The Diocese of Sheffield through a seconded pastoral team led by Rachel Ross, The Revds Andrew Teal and Peter Craig-Wild attempted to manage the pastoral care both of Brain and members of the Community wounded by the scandal.

Starting with about 30 people who worked on designing and creating the services, the congregation grew to touching 600 while resident at St Thomas' Church. Main themes included care for the planet and concern about its abuse, simple lifestyle and development of relationships with non-churched people. A conservative Evangelical construct of its demise is that it moved away from St Thomas' to Sheffield Ponds Forge Rotunda and from mainstream evangelical christianity to what some have oddly styled a pelagian theology, the number of community members no longer increased, though service attendance plateaued at about 300. A significant practical weakness in terms of duty of care was the lack of accountability for NOS and its absence from diocesan and deanery structures. This was allowed because of its perceived international significance - finding expression in an overwhelming delusion that this was the renewal of the Church of England and indeed the planet. Plans for communities across the western world (e.g., San Francisco) were afoot. The Planetary Mass at Pond's Forge was marked by a bold liturgical experimentation, as well as a naive hopefulness. American expelled Dominican Catholic theologian and priest Matthew Fox was a consulted theological resource, and a favourite theologian was Jurgen Moltmann. This would indicate more theological sophistication and complexity than a one-word caricature might allow.

A remnant of the community continued to meet, under different leadership, for some years afterwards in Sheffield.