Is the sun finally setting on Arise?

Back in April's newsletter, Craig talked about David Farrier's investigative work uncovering alleged harms that happened within Arise Church.

The lead pastor and founder of Arise, John Cameron, resigned in mid-April, along with his wife Gillian. At this time Arise commissioned Pathfinding to undertake an independent report looking into claims of alleged abuse and sexual harassment (among other incidents) within the church's staff, volunteers and congregation.

Throughout April and May Pathfinding gathered information from victims who voluntarily retold their experiences. By late April a total of 190 individuals had been in touch. At the close of the submission period, on May 12th, a large number of people had come forward requesting verbal submissions, and more time was needed to work through these. This meant that submissions officially concluded on May 27th.

David Farrier reported on Webworm on July 7th:

“The report was originally meant to come out June 29. The board then said it would be delayed by “two weeks”. Then it was then rescheduled for July 7. But on July 6, it was delayed again - this time with no deadline. Victims had come forward to participate in a process run by a church that had hurt them, in the hope they would finally be heard. They were specifically told they would get their say, in explicit terms agreed to by John Cameron himself. Instead they were betrayed again.”

John Cameron allegedly sought legal recourse, which delayed the release of the Pathfinding report in early July; David Farrier investigated, contacting High Courts around New Zealand to find out if an injunction had been sought. But the delay turned out to be a non-publication order from John and Gillian Cameron and Arise Church, through the Employment Relations Authority (ERA).

David Farrier reported in mid-August that Webworm (and other media outlets) had been leaked a copy of the Pathfinding report, sought legal advice, and decided to publish the entire report - which can be read here: https://www.webworm.co/p/pathfindingreport (please note the content is heavy in places, and goes into more detail than I have done.) The day after Webworm's publication came out, ERA said that they had dropped all restrictions on publishing the Pathfinding report. Arise uploaded a statement that day on their website, under ‘News', and continued to deny that the Pathfinding report had been legally published.

Quick facts in the Pathfinding Report:

• 617 individuals were in contact with Pathfinding.
• 545 individuals completed the submission process.
• 80% were written submissions, 20% were verbal.
• Of 117 staff submissions, 61% were from current staff and 39% from ex-staff.
• 141 current or former interns (now known as ‘Ministry School Students') made submissions
• 57% of all submitters were female, 39% male, 4% anonymous.

Submissions included claims of bullying, harassment, physical or sexual assault and being overworked - as well as complaints of being ‘burned out', at least one volunteer working 17+ hours on a single Sunday service, feeling undervalued, and some expressing concerns over the use of church finances by staff. (Charity Services are now looking into these claims of pastors using church funds for personal use.)

Pathfinding's report includes some shocking mismanagement practices, including Health and Safety and Incident Management - there is a glaring gap where incidents were not correctly followed up on, and/or correctly reported to external services including New Zealand Police. Suggested policy changes here will mean that staff are following standardised forms for incident reporting, and being escalated properly, including to external services.

Health and Safety personnel and Privacy Officer roles were not in use for much of the church history, and this the report says would need to urgently change.

One of the most shocking recommendations to come out from this report is about church governance - to remove the entire Arise Board by July 1st (this date has now passed, with no change!) The recommendation is to appoint a Commissioner to oversee the establishment of a new Board and implement the 92 recommendations within the Pathfinding report.

The Commissioner's role would also be to lead an apology and bring restoration - some victims still feel that their voices were not heard properly, and are yet to receive a formal, meaningful and genuine apology from Arise around numerous incidents that took place. There has been a call to revoke the commentary on events that took place prior to 2016, and for the church to actually be specific in naming their wrongdoings when apologising.

Pathfinding concluded the report by saying that an external Restorative Justice expert should be consulted within the coming months to advise the church Board.

It will be interesting to see exactly how the church chooses to implement these recommendations over the following months and years. As well as the outcomes of the other reports on the church currently being undertaken by Charity Services, Parry Field Lawyers, BDO Accounting and Duncan Cotterill. I await seeing how Arise will complete further work with someone with “expert theological input and advice on church structure and leadership - TBC” (from the Arise website, which I am not going to link to.)

Need help?

• NZ Counsellors free call or text 1737
• The Depression Helpline - 0800 111 757 or free text 4202
• Youthline - 0800 376 633, free text 234
• The Lowdown - text 5626
• Rape Crisis - 0800 88 33 00
• If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 111.