Displaying items by tag: scandals

Hillsong Phoenix lead pastor Terry Crist has resigned from the Hillsong church and taken his congregation with him. Nine US-based Hillsong churches have left the global organisation in two weeks as the movement shrinks dramatically. The church’s high-profile scandals include the resignation of Australian founder Brian Houston after he breached a code of conduct with two women. The pastor of Hillsong Atlanta left immediately after to launch a new church at Easter. Pastor Crist lost confidence in the global board to continue to lead them as a congregation and had asked to be allowed a local governing board while still operating under the Hillsong banner. The board refused. Pray for the Hillsong families as they process the pain of separation from their community. Pray for healing and change where change is needed.

Transparency International warned of the dangers of funds for the response to the coronavirus crisis being misappropriated. On 26 May more stories confirmed the validity of these concerns. In Bolivia, the minister of health was removed from his post after the government paid over the odds for ventilators that were not even fit for purpose. In Italy, the head of Sicily’s coronavirus response has been put under house arrest following an investigation into bribery cases going back to 2016. In Poland, the health minister is under fire after the government bought more than 10,000 useless face masks through a family friend. The case has been referred to prosecutors. These examples join many others, including an investigation in Bosnia and Herzegovina into a multi-million-euro government contract for ventilators that went to a raspberry farm with political connections, and the resignation in Panama of a senior politician involved in yet another ventilator procurement scandal.