Hillsong Church Founder, Brian Houston Resigns Over Inappropriate Conduct Towards Two Women
Brian Houston, the founder of global megachurch Hillsong, has resigned after investigations concluded that he had breached church protocol by behaving inappropriately toward two women.
Hillsong Church said an internal investigation into complaints from two women had found that its global senior pastor, Brian Houston, had breached worshippers’ trust.
On Wednesday, the board confirmed Mr Houston’s resignation in a statement addressed to the church.
The statement partly reads;
We understand there will be much emotion at this news, and we all share these feelings. We acknowledge that change is needed. We have committed to an independent review of our governance structure and processes, understanding that this is a time of humble reflection.
Last week, the church called for an extraordinary meeting involving 800 staff members, saying that it was investigating two complaints about inappropriate conduct involving Houston, one from a decade ago and another from 2019.
The Hillsong board said Houston had sent “inappropriate text messages” to a staff member and had spent time alone with another woman in her hotel room in Sydney, where she had attended a Hillsong conference.
Houston, “disoriented” by a mix of alcohol and medication, allegedly entered the woman’s hotel room and stayed there for 40 minutes.
The church, in a statement, added that it paid the staff member the equivalent of two months’ salary, and the woman Houston had met in Sydney was refunded her fee for the conference and the donation she had made to the church.
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Houston founded the 150,000-strong church in Sydney with his wife, Bobbie, in the 1980s and set up ministries in Europe, Asia, and North and South America.
Huston’s resignation, and the reasons for it, are likely to deepen the turmoil for the church. Hillsong events have been regularly attended by political leaders, including Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who led prayers at a 2019 church conference.
Morrison is expected to call an election within weeks.
