“Brian Houston categorically denies he had knowledge of this serious allegation when Reed Bogard was selected as the Lead Pastor for Dallas,” Hillsong Church said in a statement to CP. Hillsong Church Senior Pastor Brian Houston of Sydney, Australia, speaks at Catalyst Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, on Oct. Houston is currently facing criminal charges for allegedly concealing sex abuse committed by his father decades earlier. When contacted about the report in February, Hillsong Church said Brian Houston, who resigned Wednesday after it was revealed that two women made serious complaints of misconduct against him in the last 10 years, was not aware of the rape claims against Bogard when he was chosen to lead Hillsong Dallas in 2019. “At the time, the Church did not conduct any meaningful inquiry into the details or circumstances of the affair, and no one with appropriate training was assigned to look into matters,” investigators noted. The relationship began in September 2013 and continued through the beginning of January 2014. It shows that Hillsong Church Australia first learned of the sexual affair between Bogard and the junior staff member in the second half of 2014. The report was submitted to George Aghajanian, general manager and a director of Hillsong Church Australia and its international entities, on Jan. Church leaders were led to believe the relationship was consensual and "consequences to both were meted out accordingly," investigators revealed. Hillsong leaders were made aware years earlier of a sexual relationship between the two parties, but an investigation was not conducted by the church at the time. The investigation was commissioned by Hillsong Global in October 2020, shortly after senior church officials first learned that the former junior staffer alleged that her first act of sexual intercourse with Bogard in his car after a late night out together was non-consensual. The findings of the investigation conducted by the New York City law firm Zukerman Gore Brandeis & Crossman, LLP, are highlighted in a report reviewed by CP. I think I just want to leave it at that.” Everything that you have in that deposition is obviously something that I did, and I said in the context of a legal deposition. She confirmed she participated in a deposition concerning the allegation but would not say anything more than what was already included in the report. The former junior Hillsong NYC staffer who asked not to be publicly named in this report when contacted by The Christian Post, said she has been trying to move on with her life. Less than two weeks after Reed Bogard abruptly resigned as lead pastor of the now-defunct Hillsong Dallas in January 2021, an internal investigation commissioned by Hillsong Global showed that the married father of three was accused of rape by a junior female staffer with whom he had a monthlong affair while serving at Hillsong NYC years earlier. Reed Bogard | YouTube/Red Rocks Young Adults
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