UPDATE: During an extraordinary meeting this morning, senior Hillsong pastor Phil Dooley told church staff about two incidents involving former global pastor Brian Houston and his behavior toward women. Read Crikey’s Cover of the meeting here and our original report below.
The troubles plagued Hillsong Megachurch convened an all-staff meeting this morning, apparently in a bid to address a growing crisis, with rumors of an allegedly significant moral transgression spreading rapidly within the church.
Crikey understands that the senior staff meeting will be chaired by senior Hillsong pastor Phil Dooley and will address the rumors of a crisis that have gathered around the top of the organization.
What’s the matter?
Observing Hillsong, the mega-church of Scott Morrison’s friend Pastor Brian Houston, can be a bit like looking at the Kremlin. Or the Vatican. Sometimes you can just say through a whisper here and a whisper there that a bigger jerk is on the way. The only evidence could be the unexplained removal of a close confidant from the inner circle of the ruler.
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And do not assume that the organization will ever come clean with full and frank answers for public consumption. Hillsong manages information as well as any large company, which means it is very good at controlling the narrative and minimizing the damage.
Official silence could be the church’s tactic of choice, but elsewhere in Hillsong County this week, the whispers have turned into glasses.
The first victim of the internal ructions appears to be a decades-long Houston family loyalist, Dr. Gordon Lee. Lee is a general practitioner from Southwest Sydney who openly promotes his medical practice in these terms:
“To glorify God by building up medical practices that provide high-quality holistic care. Values:
1. A love for God
2. A love for His Church
3. A love for the people.
Lee was always there for the big moments, as if eight so-called Hillsong elders (including Houston) had met in late 2000 for “things concerning the apparent moral failure of [Brian’s father] Frank Houston about 30 years ago ”, as the internal minutes of the meeting styled it.
To translate the church code, the “moral failure” refers to Frank Houston’s sexual abuse of boys as young as eight. “About 30 years ago” was the linguistic attempt to reduce abuse to nothing.
But according to reliable sources, Lee has now left Hillsong Eldership over what Crikey understands his concerns about a moral problem with the church that has only recently arisen. Crikey sought answers from him, but was told he “did not want to discuss it” because, as his receptionist put it, “Dr. Lee says the church is his family.” (Our follow-up email with specific questions met a similar fate.)
Hillsong also declined to comment Crikey’s written questions about the alleged moral violation. Our sources indicate that there are non-disclosure agreements. Once again, Hillsong does not comment on the strange disappearance of the Hillsong website from the entire list of elders – the Houston rusted-ons with “exemplary lifestyles” that have “spiritual oversight” of the church. These are the illustrated figures of the church, dating back to the early days of Hillsong and its predecessor entities in the 1990s.
The changes – and the whispering of whispers – came after a long period of rolling scandal and crisis for Hillsong and his “global pastor”, Brian Houston.
The church has been affected by infidelity scandals in the United States. It was the subject of scathing exposures by international news organizations. Crikey the Houston family covered their legal and moral work here as well as the scandal of visiting American student Anna Crenshaw, who was innocently attacked by a Sydney-based Hillsong figure. This episode was only pursued later by Hillsong after police were involved.
In addition to that, earlier this year Houston announced that he was stepping down as leader of the World Church a few months after he was accused of hiding information about his father’s alleged child abuse. (He strongly denied the concealment charges and said he would defend it vigorously.)
Last week, the wheel of justice turned once again when a magistrate set a date in December for an expected three-week hearing.
Meanwhile, in Hillsong, the wall of silence had risen. Nobody goes back Crikey’s calls or emails to confirm or deny the new scandal.
If you have information about this story, please contact David Hardaker via [email protected].
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