AUSTRALIA
The Australian

OCTOBER 08, 2014

Dan Box
Crime Reporter
Sydney

THE Pentecostal Christian movement led by Hillsong Church founder Brian Houston told its ministers “we cannot see any reason” for the serial child abuse committed by his father to be publicly announced, a royal commission has heard.

A letter sent on Christmas Eve 2001 to every minister of the Assemblies of God in Australia movement said “We are aware that the above information may be a surprise and shock to some of you.

“We cannot see any reason for this to be announced to your church or further afield. Sadly there are always one or two people with their own agendas who will try and get mileage from other people’s pain,” the letter said.

The letter, tendered in evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, does not detail the offences committed…