Many prayers for the family and friends of Mark Elston who are mourning his tragic loss.

I have fond memories of Mark as one of the key contributors in what was called the Alternative Worship movement in the heady days of Thatcherite Britain and the beginnings of a movement dissatisfied with commodified or overly punative or fundamentalist/controlling forms of Christianity.  

I remember with fondness his enthusiasm and wisdom when I was very new to Christianity in a number of gatherings to promote alternative worship with the support of Pete Ward Jonny Baker  Gary Collins Ana Draper Kevin Draper amongst many others who were fellow travellers of a shared way against a barrage of criticism.  I remember him representing many of us in an interview on the television after the fall out of the Nine o’clock service in Sheffield and the punitive control and backlash to what was very important to many of us, that created a decade of distrust and fear of anything spiritual or alternative in the Church of England and denominations in the UK. I know Mark suffered a lot from this backlash and as a result leaving the denomination he had been a part. He continued to be a dual force of brilliant almost prophetic wisdom and understanding with a deep brokenness. The Church to this day does not know how to support prophets who are always complicated, and Mark was no exception although he was always kind and caring.

I give thanks for the conversations we had years ago on my journey through alternative worship, charismatic evangelicalism, emerging church, liberal Catholicism, new monasticism and now a broad mix of the above in the context of Anglicanism. That decade of control and oppression of all things to prevent the flourishing of missional and alt worship communities only ended for me with the creation of fresh expressions of church and the wisdom of a new initiative instigated by Archbishop Rowan Williams and led by Graham Cray and Steve Croft now Bishop of Oxford.

So thanks Mark and I am sorry for your loss, I know you are in a better place where suffering and tears are no more…