Hillsong founder Brian Houston is once again under fire after church staff were told he committed “indiscretions” towards two women.
Pastor Phil Dooley, who took over the role as the head of the evangelical church after Houston stepped down earlier this year, told 800 staff members of the incidents on Friday.
He detailed two incidents about seven years apart which were investigated by senior church staff, one of which resulted in a woman stepping down from the church.
The first incident involved a female church member who quit after making a complaint about an “inappropriate” text message about a decade ago.
“It was along the line of ‘if I was with you, I‘d like to kiss and cuddle you’, words of that nature,” Pastor Dooley reportedly told the meeting, according to multiple media reports.
The woman was said to be upset and complained to Hillsong general manager George Aghajanian before leaving her job.
The woman was paid several months’ salary as compensation with Houston offering to pay.
“Pastor Brian said ‘I want to pay that personally because it was my fault’,” Pastor Dooley said.
Pastor Dooley told staff of another incident which occurred at a Sydney hotel during the church’s annual conference at Qudos Bank Arena at Homebush in 2019.
It was outlined to staff that Houston’s drinking and prescription anxiety medication played a role in the incident.
Pastor Dooley said that after locking himself out of his own room, he spent 40 minutes inside the woman’s room.
“The truth is we don’t know what happened next,” Pastor Dooley said.
“The woman has not said there was any sexual activity.
“Brian has said there was no sexual activity but he was in the room for 40 minutes.”
The incident was investigated by the church’s global board which decided he should take three months off.
Hillsong has been contacted for further comment.
Houston in January stepped down from the mega-church while fighting allegations he concealed his father’s child sexual abuse.
He was last year charged with one count of concealing a serious indictable offencexjmtzyw and has pleaded not guilty.
He is due to return to court in Sydney in November.
