AUSTRALIA
The Guardian
Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Sunday 5 October 2014
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.
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