Born: 22 November 1929.  He was bishop of Mthatha from 5 May 1979 until 26 January 1995. From 1982 when the book of Fr. Dischl (Transkei for Christ) was published, up to his early retirement in 1995, Bishop Brook continued to lead the Diocese in his humble and fatherly manner. He was known for his pastorally oriented approach and practical culturally contextualised homilies delivered with dignity and in deep isiXhosa tones and expressions. 

He died on 5 September 2011.

Being a simple person and a man of peace, he found it difficult to deal with situations of conflict and unfortunately for him, during his time there was no lack of conflict in his diocese. As a first isiXhosa speaking bishop, in a diocese that up to this point, missionaries who founded the diocese were predominant and with not many financial resources of his own from the diocese, there were power dynamics that paralysed him as a bishop. 

For the most part the pastoral activities during his time continued more on the initiative and steam of the missionaries than from a coordinated pastoral approach by the bishop because they were in the majority and had the resources and the bishop was a gentleman. The expectations from the predominantly missionary clergy and the few local emerging clergy, which were not often in harmony, were too much for him to handle and this led to him being viewed as indecisive. 

Pastorally there were also issues that tore him apart, the major one being the conflict between the Sotho custom of circumcision and the teachings of the Church. There were strong personalities on either side of the conflict and the bishop found it difficult to make a decisive intervention. Up to the time of his early retirement in 1995, this conflict was not solved, and was only resolved by his successor Bishop Oswald 6 years later. 

The other conflict that befell the peaceful bishop was the transition from the old apartheid regime to the new political era of democracy. He found himself caught between taking a position against Kaizer Matanzima, president of the then nominally independent Transkei whom he knew for many years in Cofimvaba and aligning himself with the view lobbied by some of his influential priests to support a pro ANC stance to end the apartheid system. It was these power related dynamics, pastoral conflicts and political skirmishes that saw the gentle and peace-loving bishop throwing in the towel and resigning before his retirement age. 

Because Bishop Brook was not a person prone to express his views and feelings, it remains a matter of wondering how much he suffered through all this. A hint of his suffering in silence was given by Fr. Stefan Mandl who is sensitive to feelings of people in his speech on behalf of the priests on the day Bishop Brook was buried when he stated that “Bishop Brook suffered and we did not support him”. It is further indicated by the fact that when he retired, Bishop Brook chose to stay with his family. Bishop Oswald and later, Bishop Sipuka, often visited Bishop Brook at his family’s place (at this time suffering from intense Alzheimer) and ensured that he was well provided for. His family remained possessive of him, and after his death, it took hard negotiations to get the family to agree to release his body to be buried in the Cathedral with his predecessors and his successor Bishop Oswald. We will remain forever wondering what Bishop Brook shared with his family about his experience as bishop of Mthatha.