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Tag Archives: sexual abuse

Controversies around Frank, Frank’s son and Frankston

07 Tuesday Oct 2014

Posted by Nailed Truth in Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

$10000, Brian Houston, Frank Houston, Frankston, Hillsong Church, paedophilia, sexual abuse

Brian Houston And Media

Before reading the below ABC article, please hear Brian Houston’s account of the scandal here.

Brian Houston: sins of my father….

According to Brian’s own words in the article above he did nothing when his father first confessed. It wasn’t until “12 or 18 months later” when a second victim came forward that Brian said he acted. Brian Houston said he waited until the “problem had grown” before he took it “to [his] denomination”.

But now new information has emerged from the Royal Commission. Why didn’t Brian Houston mention this victim at Hillsong Conference 2014?

“About two months later when the cheque had not turned up, AHA says he called Brian Houston and about two weeks later AHA received a cheque for $10,000 in the mail.”

ABC reports,

Hillsong offered abuse victim $10,000 for forgiveness over abuse by pastor Frank Houston

ELEANOR HALL: The national child abuse royal commission opened its public hearings into the popular Pentecostal spiritual movement today. This inquiry is looking into how the movement’s leaders handled allegations of abuse in three Australian states.

It is also set to examine a scandal that went to the highest ranks of the Hillsong Church in Sydney and the commission has outlined the case of a Christian college teacher in Melbourne who was jailed for assaulting eight children during the 1980s and1990s.

Our correspondent covering the inquiry is Emily Bourke and she joins us now.

So Emily, are there specific allegations of misconduct by the leaders of this spiritual movement that the inquiry is considering?

EMILY BOURKE: Yes, there is Eleanor. This is the 18th public hearing and it’s being split into three separate cases.

The first to be heard is associated with allegations against the late Frank Houston.

He came to Australia from New Zealand in the 1970s and set up the Christian Life Centre in Sydney, which is really the first incarnation of Hillsong Church.

And as we now understand, the allegations against Frank Houston are not isolated to a single claim in New Zealand but quite a few in New Zealand and in Australia.

Crucial to this investigation is how senior church leaders, including Frank Houston’s son Brian, handled the complaints when they came to their attention in the 1990s and then came to a head in 2000.

This morning we heard that Frank Houston held a meeting with a complainant at a McDonalds restaurant and counsel assisting the inquiry Simeon Beckett gave some description of how that meeting unfolded.

SIMEON BECKETT: At the meeting, Frank Houston offered AHA $10,000 and said, I want your forgiveness for this.

He was passed a napkin to sign if he accepted the $10,000.

About two months later when the cheque had not turned up, AHA says he called Brian Houston and about two weeks later AHA received a cheque for $10,000 in the mail.

There was no covering note.

Brian Houston is likely to say that he was told that there were in fact two payments to AHA totalling $12,000.

Frank Houston died in 2004.

In February 2009, Brian Houston was provided with further allegations of child sexual abuse.

The evidence is likely to reveal that no allegations of child sexual abuse against Frank Houston have been referred to the police and no civil proceedings have been commenced in Australia.

ELEANOR HALL: That’s counsel assisting the inquiry, Simeon Beckett.

Really quite an extraordinary story there, Emily.

What can you tell us at this stage about how the Australian Christian Churches handled these allegations in different states?

EMILY BOURKE: Well, they vary and they are a study of contrasts in some ways.

In Queensland, the Australian Christian Churches will be interrogated over how it dealt with the case of a youth worker, Jonathan Baldwin, who was jailed for assaulting a young man while he was counselling him.

But the royal commission is also looking at a rather disturbing matter out of Victoria and that’s associated with former teacher Kenneth Sandilands, fair to say a serial offender.

By the time his career ended there were allegations by no less 30 children and those allegations had been made to the church and the school over a 10 year period and yet more matters have since come to light, as Simeon Beckett explained.

SIMEON BECKETT: On the 22nd November, 2000 Mr Sandilands pleaded guilty to 12 counts of indecent assault and was sentenced to two years imprisonment with a non-parole period of 12 months.

Mr Sandilands appealed against the severity of his sentence but later withdrew the appeal.

Most recently, about a month ago on the 10th September, 2014, Mr Sandilands was convicted of a further six counts of indecently assault a girl and one count of indecently assault a male under 16 at St Paul’s Anglican Primary School in Frankston, Victoria.

Each of the offences occurred between 1970 and 1974 – some 10 years before he commenced at the college.

He was sentenced then to a further 26 months imprisonment.

The hearing will explore whether those at Northside Christian Centre or the college were aware of any such allegations when Mr Sandilands was employed in 1983.

ELEANOR HALL: And that’s counsel assisting again, Simeon Beckett, setting out the scope of the inquiry.

Now Emily, you have now got the witness list. Who is being called to give evidence?

EMILY BOURKE: We’ll hear from quite a few victims, either in person or through written statements.

Eighteen witnesses have been slated from across the Pentecostal Church, including the current senior pastor Brian Houston who is the public face of Hillsong in Sydney.

He’s put out a statement this morning saying that having to face the fact that his father engaged in such repulsive acts was, and still is, agonising.

We’re expected to hear from the state presidents of the Australian Christian Churches (ACC), the peak bodies in Victoria and in Queensland, and the national president of the ACC has also been called to give evidence.

ELEANOR HALL: Emily Bourke, our reporter covering the inquiry, thank you.

Source: By Emily Bourke, Hillsong offered abuse victim $10,000 for forgiveness over abuse by pastor Frank Houston, ABC, http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2014/s4101888.htm, 07/10/2014 12:22:00. (Accessed 07/10/2014.)

RELATED ARTICLES

News reports from Royal Commision on Hillsong 07/10/2014

At least 50 pastors in New Zealand said nothing about Hillsong’s sexually abused

Christian Post covers national inquiry into Hillsong’s sex abuse scandal

The Guardian reporting on Hillsong & the Royal Commission

Brian Houston: sins of my father….

The Guardian reporting on Hillsong & the Royal Commission

06 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by Nailed Truth in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on The Guardian reporting on Hillsong & the Royal Commission

Tags

ACC, AOG, Assemblies of God, Australian Christian Churches, Brian Houston, Frank Houston, Guardian, Hillsong, Hillsong Church, houston, national president, president, Royal Commission, sexual abuse, The Guardian

The Guardian reports,

Hillsong pastor Brian Houston to testify about abuse allegations response

High-profile Hillsong senior pastor Brian Houston is expected to give evidence at an inquiry into how Pentecostal churches responded to child sex abuse allegations against his father, Frank Houston, and two other men.

The royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse sitting in Sydney on Tuesday will hear how Hillsong and the Pentecostal association, Assemblies of God, responded to abuse allegations against William Francis “Frank” Houston – the famous preacher behind the movement which gave birth to the mega-church.

His son Brian Houston was national president of the Assemblies of God (AoG) in Australia from 1997 to 2009. More than 1,000 Pentecostal churches are affiliated with the AoG which is now known as Australian Christian Churches (ACC).

Brian Houston was president in 2000 when his father admitted he sexually abused a boy in New Zealand 30 years earlier. Frank Houston was fired by his son from all church roles.

Hillsong in Sydney was created when separate churches run by father and son merged under the leadership of Brian Houston.

Frank Houston died in 2004 aged 82. Further allegations against him have come to light since his death.

The charismatic preacher had been a Salvation Army officer in his native New Zealand before founding his first ministry at Lower Hutt near Wellington in 1960. He later became superintendent of the New Zealand Assemblies of God before moving to Sydney in 1977.

The commission will hear also of allegations against two other men and will be looking at the response of the ACC to those allegations.

One of the men, a former youth pastor at a Sunshine Coast church, Jonathan Baldwin, was sentenced to eight years’ jail in 2009 when he was found guilty of repeatedly molesting a 13-year-old boy who had come to him for counselling.

The other matter the commission will examine is the response of the Northside Christian College and the Northside Christian Centre, (now Encompass Church) to allegations of child sexual abuse made against former teacher Kenneth Sandilands.

In a statement issued when the inquiry was announced Encompass Church pastor John Spinella said the church, based at Bundoora, Victoria, welcomed the inquiry.

“As a church we have recognised these past failures and take the opportunity to apologise for the suffering and pain endured by those who were abused,” he said.

The public hearing is expected to run for two weeks and will be the 18th held by the commission.

Source: Hillsong pastor Brian Houston to testify about abuse allegations response, The Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/oct/06/hillsong-brian-houston-testify-abuse-allegations-response, Published 06/10/2014. (Accessed 06/10/2014.)

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