New Zealand’s Department of Internal Affairs is investigating the country’s largest church after it commissioned an internal report into allegations of abuse and sexual misconduct from within the congregation, found the results damning, and then refused to release it and address the complaints.
Conducted by Pathfinding, the 49-page report was commissioned by the church after several public stories came out that cast the 10,000-member multisite Arise Church in negative light. Senior Pastor John Cameron would resign after this initial revelation. In total, 545 people came forward with a story to tell, including current and former members of staff, past board members, and students.
Consequently, many stories of racism, bullying, manipulation, extravagant spending, abusing the interns through overwork, and sexual harassment emerged. Pathfinding recommended a wide array of course corrective actions the church should undertake, 92 in all, to establish greater financial accountability and a healthier church environment, including the termination of the board in exchange for another one, on account of how corrupt things got, writing:
“Notwithstanding the new appointments, the board as an entity has lost its moral mandate to govern Arise. We believe it to be unacceptable that the board were unaware of key issues within Arise, and did not initiate the necessary mechanisms to ensure they could exercise their governance responsibilities.”
Not only did the board not resign, but they refused to release the report, despite previously promising they would, and didn’t even tell the congregation what any of the recommendations were. In fact, they sought to have a gag order put on it through the Employment Relations Authority (ERA), who initially granted their request.
Then the report was leaked by the investigative site Webworm, much to the outrage of the church, who complained that the missive was “illegally obtained.” Once leaked, the ERA rescinded the publication ban, and the news has roiled the congregation, catching the attention of Charities Service, a division of Internal Affairs. Charities General Manager Natasha Wright said of the leaked report:
“In light of recent developments, Charities Services has opened an inquiry and will be re-engaging with the charity. As this matter is now subject to our regulatory processes, it is not appropriate to make any further comment.”
