I feel Mark and I were cut of the same cloth. He had been a Punk. I appreciated Punks but was more of a New Romantic. The true spirit of rock n roll is not so far from the Spirt of God. Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, John Lennon, John Lyndon, Joe Strummer, Debbie Harry, Kanye West, Mark Elston. You see Mark wanted an Acts of the Apostles’ Church. We tend to get middle class mediocrity. ‘More tea vicar?’ Mark wanted the Psychedelic Furs. We tend to get Britain’s Got Talent. 

‘We’re on a mission to save New York.’ He proclaimed with his half smile. I was lead singer of Auntie Rose at the time. A Glaswegian band too rock n roll for Christians and too Christian for rock n roll. But the perfect simger to buy into Mark and his ‘Let’s build a church in 3 weeks in St Mark’s Place.’ And we did. And it worked. Kind of. We worshiped. Alternatively. We created community. People came. It was real. It was Punk Jesus. It was authentic, just like Mark. 

Of the group that went on that trip we went back home at different times. Until only five remained and Mark was counting up the five and he got to four including himself. ‘There’s five people still to fly back to London but I can only count four.’ He said. We counted them. ‘It’s Vanessa, Mark. She’s number 5. You forgot Vanessa!’ 

And that was Mark. He could forget himself. He could certainly forget Vanessa. But you could never forget him or forget that he knew Jesus. 

Mark was an iceberg. You could see him for miles but there was still so much under the surface. It’s ironic that finally he was lost at sea, crossing the ocean ro return to the bosom of  the Father. In a fake world thanks for being authentic my dear brother. Catch you on the other side. 

Jim Falconer