Category: News

Items of interest regarding child sexual abuse, and especially as it relates to the Friends and Workers fellowship.

ND and SD Convention Guidance from Perry Pearson

Dear Dakota Friends,

Our fall convention season is rapidly approaching, and we want to send out a letter about our days together.  We remain committed to making our conventions a safe place for all attendees, and especially those with young children.  Because of this, no known sex offenders or those with known allegations of Child Sexual Abuse/Sexual abuse (CSA/SA) will be attending any South Dakota or North Dakota convention.

While we understand no setting can be guaranteed risk free, we can practice wise conduct to deter risk.  This includes a renewed awareness of the need for healthy boundaries.  Our purpose is that any interactions we have with your children will be in public view.  Another practice to reduce risk is to follow the buddy system introduced in the Boy Scouts of America training program.  This is a system where a child is paired with another child to keep track of each other.  We encourage you to follow this safe suggestion.  However, this should not be considered a substitute for parental/guardian supervision.

While at convention, we don’t want to live in fear, but we must be wise.  If something appears inappropriate or uncomfortable to you, please speak to someone you trust who can help you.  Situations that are reported can be dealt with properly, including involving the authorities if warranted.  Communication is our safety!

Please feel free to make alternative sleeping accommodations if you are uncomfortable staying on the grounds.  The most convenient locations are as follows:

Utica – Yankton

Hunter – Casselton or Fargo

Mandan – Mandan or Bismarck

Any who choose to do so are welcome to listen via a conference call number which will be provided. We are aware that this option has given spiritual help to many who have listened from home in recent years.

We hope this information will help make convention an edifying and encouraging experience.

The Dakota Workers

Australian perpetrator still attending meetings

WINGS Note: This was marked Confidential, Not to be distributed, when it had the alleged perpetrator’s name included. It has since been redacted by The Brave Truth Australia and distributed publicly by them.

On Fri, 28 July 2023, 10:07 am
Support TBTA, <support@thebravetruthaustralia.com> wrote:
The Brave Truth Australia
PO Box 829
NORTH LAKES QLD 4509
Email: support@thebravetruthaustralia.com

Confidential letter for Graeme Dalton, David Saunders & Brendan Pring only.

Not to be distributed.

Dear Graeme, David & Brendan,

XXXXX XXXXX of XXXXXX is being investigated for criminal activity relating to the unlawful and indecent dealings of persons under 16 years of age.

His investigating officer is XXXXXXXXX at XXXXX Police Station. Email XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Your contact details as well as this letter have been given to the investigating officer, to assist them in the investigation.

Statement in recent Overseers letter dated 01 July 2023;
“There is no place for people who have harmed children, in our meetings and conventions; we ask any individual with a history of causing harm, or with allegations, or convictions, not to attend. This includes public gospel meetings.”

Therefore, in line with your written public commitment as Overseers of your church in Australia/NZ and consistent with your legal obligations, we strongly recommend that you ensure that XXXXX XXXXX does not attend meetings and gatherings of your church fellowship.

You may be legally obligated under NSW Law Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) and you are also mandatory reporters under the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998.

We acknowledge that it is possible XXXXX’s standing in the meetings could have changed already given the recent email from Overseers, however we would be grateful to have communication direct from you via return email confirming this recommendation until such time that the trial has reached its conclusion.

We would appreciate your confirmation within the next 72 hours that you have taken this action and appropriate Eiders have been notified to pre-empt any attempt to attend.

We want to work with you as much as possible to have alleged and convicted abusers removed from the fellowship in order to keep children and other victims of sexual violence safe. We hope by sharing this information with you it will help expedite this process.

Sincerely,
Jillian Hishon & Vianne Hills
(For and on behalf of many concerned Friends)

The Brave Truth Australia
PO Box 829
NORTH LAKES QLD 4509
support@thebravetruthaustralia.com

From: Graeme Dalton
Sent: Saturday, 29 July 2023 6:35 PM
To: Support TBTA
Subject: Re: Alleged Perpetrator

Hi,

Thanks for your email regarding XXXXX, and we can confirm he will not be in meetings where there are children.

Regards,

Graeme

ATTHIS TIME TBTA RECEIVED AN EMAIL FROM SENIOR CONSTABLE XXXXXXXXX THAT THERE WAS NO OPEN INVESTIGATION ON XXXXX XXXXX (WE HAD OBVIOUSLY ACTED ON THE INFORMATION WE HAD BEEN GIVEN)

From: Support TBTA support@thebravetruthaustralia.com
Sent: Thursday, August 3, 2023 4:36 PM
To: Graeme Dalton <XXXXXXXXX@gmail.com>; David SAUNDERS <XXXXXX@gmail.com>; XXXXXXXXXXX@gmail.com
Subject: RE: Alleged Perpetrator

Dear Graeme, David & Brendan,

Thank you for your email, Graeme.

We have since spoken with Senior Constable XXXXXXXXXXX and we understand that he has also spoken with you. We understand from our conversation that there was an investigation which has been closed for now. In the last few days we have become aware of more victims in relation to this person and we are in the process of following these up.

Senior Constable XXXXXXXXXX has opened an Intelligence Record on the fellowship for any information we are able to share with them, given the serious nature of what we are dealing with. He was very interested to know that XXXXX XXXXX had spent many years overseas in XXXXXXXXX and XXXXXXXX (XXXXXX/XXXXXXX) and potentially other countries. Based on past lists and information from some friends, we are compiling some details for him so we would be grateful for any information you may be able to provide on this front. We understand that he was a companion of another senior NSW male worker who XXXXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXXX and had serious complaints of sexual abuse against him. This senior worker is now deceased.

We, along with the complainants, are disappointed, with XXXXX still being able to attend meetings even where children are not present. It will be viewed by the congregation as a “watering down” of the recent statement by the Overseers which strongly states that “There is no place for people who have harmed children, in our meetings and conventions; we ask any individual with a history of causing harm, or with allegations, or convictions, not to attend. This includes public gospel meetings.”

XXXXX XXXXX has serious allegations of sexual abuse, predation & grooming offences against children of which we have documentation. We understand David has been made aware of this on numerous occasions including text messages and emails. We also understand that David facilitated a meeting between XXXXX XXXXX and one of his victims of child sexual abuse, and friends in that area have also raised concerns of which senior workers are aware.

There are three problems with XXXXX attending fellowship meetings –

(a) it sends the wrong message to victims,

(b) if a family with children happen to attend the meeting, will the elder ask XXXXX not to attend or how will it be managed?

(c) it would be very difficult for a victim of sexual abuse (of which you may not be aware of) to have to sit across a meeting room from XXXXX every week, knowing that he is an alleged abuser and his attendance at the meeting has been sanctioned by senior workers.

We would appreciate confirmation that he will not be attending any fellowship meetings, gospel meetings or conventions. Obviously, workers or friends are free to meet with XXXXX privately on any basis they wish but to approve his attendance at a fellowship meeting sanctioned by workers where there may be victims or potentially children, in attendance, is not acceptable.

Your responsibility as mandated reporters as per the Child & Young Persons (Care & Protection) Act 1998, is extremely serious, and you must sanction a person’s attendance at one of your church meetings where there may be children attending.

We would be grateful for your confirmation that XXXXX XXXXX will no longer attend all church meetings (whether regular home-based church meetings, gospel meetings or conventions) as per your letter on 1st July 2023. Please confirm as soon as possible and by no later than next Wednesday 8th August 2023.

Sincerely,
Jillian Hishon and Vianne Hills

The Brave Truth Australia
PO Box 829
NORTH LAKES OLD 4509
support@thebravetruthaustralia.com

From: XXXXXdalton@gmail.com
Date: 8 August 2023 at 11:24:31 pm AEST
To: Support TBTA <support@thebravetruthaustralia.com>, David SAUNDERS <XXXXXX@gmail.com>, bXXXXXXp@gmail.com
Subject: RE: Alleged Perpetrator

Dear support,

Thank you for bringing this additional information to my attention. The safety and care of children in our fellowship is paramount. If you have reasonable grounds to believe a child or young person is at risk we ask that you report the issue to the relevant authorities in the appropriate jurisdiction as soon as possible.

Kind Regards,

Graeme

From: Support TBTA
Sent: Wednesday, 16 August 2023 2:10 PM
To:xxxxxx@gmail.com
Subject: RE: Alleged Perpetrator

Dear Graeme,

Thank you for your email of 8th August.

Please note that this issue is not just about the safety and care of children – it is also about the safety and care of victims.

For many decades, the safety and care of victims and children has unfortunately not been placed above offenders or alleged offenders In your fellowship.
We would suggest that allowing alleged perpetrators to attend sanctioned church meetings (as opposed to private catch-ups between people) will imply to many that the safety and care of children and victims is not paramount, a zero-tolerance approach is not being followed and that leadership is not taking this major problem seriously.

We would be very surprised if members of your Advisory Group (we understand there are 16 members) would tolerate an alleged offender attending a meeting where victims may be present.

Obviously, this is your matter to deal with, but our advice is that the current crisis is not going to be addressed unless exceptionally strong action is taken.

Please also be assured that The Brave Truth Australia will absolutely report to Police if ever we are advised anyone is at risk.

Sincerely,
Jillian Hishon

The Brave Truth Australia
PO Box 829
NORTH LAKES OLD 4509
support@thebravetruthaustralia.com

Rob Newman now ‘resting’

From: Rob Newman [redacted]@gmail.com

Date: August 28, 2023 at 8:54:51 PM CS
To:[redacted]
Subject: moving forward

Dear Staff,

I am taking some time to rest and rebuild my health.  In the interim, please contact Kent Williston or other helpers.

Thanks for your understanding.

Your brother,  Rob

WINGS Note: Rob Newman is the overseer of CA AZ NV HI & Pacific Islands.

Arkansas notification

Dear Friends, 

Since our goal is to provide a safe place for all in our meetings we have a zero-tolerance policy for child sexual abuse/sexual abuse. To minimise the risk of abuse and any feeling of mistrust or discomfort, any person with substantiated allegations of child sexual abuse/sexual abuse will not be allowed to attend any meetings in person. If these persons travel, the restrictions also apply to meetings outside their home areas. Since allegations of abuse have recently been brought to light concerning Robert Sutton, we have asked him to not attend any meetings for the present. 

We want to encourage any victims of sexual assault to come forward no matter who the abuser was. Please report it to the proper legal authorities. It would be good also to let your local workers know, so they can make necessary adjustments for the local meetings.

The Missouri Abuse Hotline is …1-800-392-3738
The Arkansas Abuse Hotline is …1-800-392-3738
The Oklahoma Abuse Hotline is …1-800-522-3511
Another helpful source is to use the hot line …(503-386-4634)
This hotline will notify workers if necessary and provide therapy advice.

Another source the RAHN hotline (1-800-656-4673) and the suicide hotline (988) for anyone in crisis. 

Your brother, Craig

Overseer apology to Sacramento friends and elders

26 August 2023

Dear Sacramento friends and elders,

We have previously written to you about Gilbert Smith’s participation in meetings.  Today we feel moved to apologize for all of the pain we have caused through this whole process.  We realize now that we erred in even discussing Gilbert’s return to meetings when so many are still reeling from all that we have learned in the past five months. We understand that we put the elders in a difficult position by asking them to review all the information and come to a decision. We see how our actions appeared to care more about a perpetrator than for victims or survivors. Our mistakes are teaching us how much we have to learn about the far-reaching impacts of sexual abuse.

As we mentioned in the previous letter, only volunteers will meet with Gilbert and Sharon for fellowship, and he will not be attending any public meetings. We also want to let you know that we are putting an indefinite pause on any attempts to put perpetrators back into established fellowship or public meetings. We understand that there is still much to learn, and we want to proceed carefully. We recognize the need to increase our knowledge about sexual abuse and pledge to continue learning. Our future efforts in this arena will be centered on supporting victims, dealing with perpetrators transparently and doing our best as a staff to listen and respond from our hearts to the needs and questions of God’s people.

This season is difficult, and we realize we have not always understood the impact of our efforts  and the extent to which people are hurting. Thank you for your patience with us, and please hear our heartfelt apologies. We love you and appreciate your help as we all seek to ensure that meetings are safe and peaceful places for fellowship and worship with God. 

With deep care,

Rob, Harold and Richard

WINGS Note: See previous reports at

Concerning Decision Despite Opposition

Sacramento Decision Change

AFTT 5 Month Update

WINGS Note: Advocates For The Truth is a small group that has been working extremely hard to support victim-survivors and prevent further abuse, working with law enforcement, friends, workers, former members, and nonmembers to address this massive crisis. WINGS applauds the work they have done, and has pasted below a recent news update from their website.

As today marks the five month mark of when the investigation was started by Cynthia Liles, we thought we would give you the highlights of what we’ve been working on.

August 23, 2023, is five months to the day since Lauren, Cynthia, and I met with Doyle Smith for over three hours discussing Dean Bruer and the issues of child sex abuse and sex assault within The Truth. We knew it had been a poorly handled issue in the past. Little did we know the enormity and depth of destruction we were about to expose.

The following day, we activated our hotline (503-386-4634) which opened the floodgates of victim/survivors coming forward. Our intake has not stopped, and it appears it will not stop anytime in the foreseeable future.

We have been working relentlessly, boldly in the public eye, as well as behind the scenes. As a result, we have not had the time or bandwidth to provide the updates to the general public as we would have liked. Throughout the next couple of weeks we will be providing several updates.

For now, here are some of the things we have accomplished as a direct result of our mission statement:

  • We are currently conducting a comprehensive investigation run by Cynthia Liles, a licensed private investigator who specializes in investigations of child sex abuse within institutions of trust.
  • 550+ perpetrators with allegations of child sex abuse and sex assault have been reported to the hotline.
  • We launched the AFTT website.
  • We have had 70,000 visitors to our website at http://www.advocatesforthetruth.com.
  • We have had approximately 110,000 public Facebook visits per month.
  • We registered as a C-Corp.
  • We registered with the IRS and became a legally registered non-profit 501c3.
  • Countless workers have been removed with allegations.
  • We partnered with two nonprofit organizations offering therapy resources to survivors.
  • We created and financed an all-men’s equine therapy retreat which will take place in September 2023.
  • We created and financed an all-women’s equine therapy retreat which will take place in October 2023.
  • We are offering therapy resources both in the US and internationally.
  • First major fundraiser resulted in $28,007 donated to AFTT.
  • Total donations YTD of $201,720.
  • Through exposure of perpetrators, we have protected countless lives.
  • We have given voice to thousands of victim/survivors.

In the works:

  • Volunteer Team of Victim Advocates.
  • Matching Donation Drive.
  • John Hopkins funded research study for survivors.

We will have many more updates to follow!

Sheri + The Advocates Team

Eagle Bend MN, Convention Letter

8/21/2023

Dear Friends,

This is Bob and Viv Hansen, owners of the Eagle Bend, Minnesota convention grounds. We feel it is imperative for us to convey some messages prior to our conventions coming up in October of this year. This will be a longer convention letter than you’ve been seeing because we want to clarify some points and help you understand our thoughts and motives. We have not wavered from our intentions of having a convention this year because we believe we have been moved by the Lord to do so. We have loved hosting conventions here in the past and we are looking forward to seeing you all coming to enjoy some restful and peaceful days.

That brings up the issues that we are facing in our fellowship. The victims and the survivors of child sex abuse or sexual abuse are our number one concern. Some have inferred that by having convention that we are insensitive and uncaring towards the victims of child sex abuse, and/or sexual abuse. That is totally untrue! We are so, so sorry for what these precious souls have had to endure through physical and mental anguish and it tears our hearts apart just to think of all they’ve had to suffer because of these wicked deeds done to them. We hope and pray that these victims will get comfort for their soul and hearts, the healing that is needed, and the love and care and respect they deserve. We will always listen to and believe the victims! We will never side with the predator and since we bought this place in 2000, our mission has been to provide a safe place for people to come and worship freely and have sweet fellowship. Over these 23 years, this has involved prohibiting certain individuals and removing certain individuals from this convention place, and we have never failed to do that IF we knew about a predator. As we have all learned, predators can be unknown to many, many people because of their deceptive grooming abilities and behaviors. While we believe that the fellowship and the ministry are made up of almost all or nearly all people with good hearts and righteous motives, we understand that there could be someone who could be amongst us who is a predator. Therefore, as we will explain a little bit later, we have put into place some safety protocols that we believe will help us to provide a safer place for people.

Another subject that we want to cover is the short staff that we have of workers. We feel very sorry for those workers and understand that they have had to endure great mental and physical stress through these times. So we know that we will need many good volunteers to step up to help us all, to make this a doable and spiritually profitable convention for everyone. Our health has failed some and we are not as able as we once were but we will do what we can.

Now for the safety protocols. We have decided that there can be NO walking path as provided in the past, north of the grounds. There is just too much area out there that is not supervised or cannot be observed by anyone and we decided we will take away that risk for our friends. You can walk up and down our long driveway and walk on the gravel road and for the most part, should be safe doing so but please observe the traffic and move well over to the side of the road when traffic approaches.

Secondly, while we have not been actively posting on social media, we have been actively reading and listening to your concerns on social media. One of the parent’s concerns has been of their children entering a community bathroom when they couldn’t be there with them because of difference of gender or other responsibilities, like taking care of their other children. So what we have decided would reduce or eliminate that concern is that we will have clean portable toilets positioned all through the grounds in well lit areas and especially close to the meeting shed so children can go out to these portable toilets and come back into meeting quickly.

Thirdly, there will be security cameras positioned throughout the grounds. Of course, they won’t be installed in private settings or sleeping areas or bathrooms because of privacy issues. They are installed in common spaces because we will be recording all movement. We don’t know the entire value of these cameras, but we do believe that it can be a deterrent if there are some evil deeds being considered and if we need to go back and review some activities.

The fourth concern is making sure that the visitors that we have coming are safe. While we will not know most of these people, we believe they are coming with good hearts and righteous motives. But, again, because predators can be so deceptive, we know of credible third party professional sources that are available for us to search out these people’s backgrounds. And at any time, if we are informed that we have a visitor with allegations of sexual abuse or unacceptable behavior coming here, or is here, we will take immediate and appropriate actions to prohibit or remove that person.

Our zero tolerance policy is very strict. It always has been, and it always will be, as long as we are owners of these grounds. Our definition of zero tolerance is that there will be no accused, alleged, or convicted predator or individual allowed on these grounds, IF we know who they are. We will always be on the side of the victims or survivors or potential victims. If there is a false accusation against a person and later, has been declared not guilty by law enforcement and/or other credible sources, we will reconsider our previous decision.

Our fifth concern is about those who have been enablers to these criminal and evil deeds. On one hand, though, we want to be very careful and thoughtful about accusing somebody who may be in a God given place of authority of something that they are not guilty of doing. We may not have firsthand, or even second hand knowledge of those people, and what they have done. However, if we do have adequate proof that any person/persons have been involved in those activities, we will prohibit them from being here.

Lastly, and most importantly, if anyone sees any suspicious behaviors or criminal behavior, please contact 911 immediately. We would want you to contact us as soon as possible. Our phone number will be posted around the grounds. We will be there as soon as possible to assess the situation and take appropriate actions. If you are hesitant to call 911, please feel free to call us and we will be with you as soon as possible to discuss the situation with you.

Another thing we would like to address is young parents who have children. We hope with all our hearts that you will feel free to come to the convention because of the safety and refuge provided here. However, we respect your choice whatever you choose. We had young children once ourselves, and we understand the challenges of keeping young and energetic youngsters under control, and under your supervision constantly. We have a large convention grounds here and we should have plenty of open area for young children to play and we encourage that the grounds would be used accordingly. There is one restriction that we will have to place this year on children. In the past, they have enjoyed playing in the woods northeast of the convention grounds and we will have to prohibit children from being in those areas. The reason for this is because the children are too far away from the main part of the grounds, that area is unsupervised and can’t be seen easily by observers. However, the woods behind the campers has always been a delightful place for children to play, and that can be easily seen by others and observed so that should be a safe place for children to play also. We want the youngsters to enjoy convention as much as we did growing up. We really appreciate you loving and caring parents who we know will do your best at knowing where your children are and thank you for your diligence in that endeavor.

We are in uncharted waters. As far as this fellowship is concerned, because what has been allowed to happen, the evil minds, and evil hearts of people, have created great damage to this fellowship. We are very saddened by it all because of the mistrust, the lack of trust, and just unsure of where to turn at times. We want you to know, and believe, that none of the above was written with the spirit of arrogance or pride. For months now, we have been tearfully and prayerfully, pleading with the Lord for His guidance. So we humbly want you to know, that we have the same, if not more love and respect for the humble and good hearts of this fellowship. Thank you for your consideration and welcome to convention!

Sincerely,

Bob and Viv Hansen

Concerned Friends Proposed Letter to Australia / New Zealand Overseers

WINGS Note:  A group of friends have written a response to the latest letter from overseers in Australia and New Zealand. They would like as many concerned and connected friends as possible to sign this letter before they send it. 

You can open the following links to see the letter and fill out the signing form. They will be sending this letter on Saturday, 26th August. You can share this with anyone who would like to add their name in support.

Letter: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M7v9hB-2Os4A2tu8xMJhMoSkChC0-oLR/view?usp=sharing

Signing Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSckG5Oen2PMwjCt2pxYdevxH6of0aI2j3FasPFY8kt7XNexDQ/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0&usp=mail_form_link

Dear Malcolm, Graeme, Wayne, Trevor, Alan Mitchell and Alan Richardson,

We would like to acknowledge your letter of the 18th August, 2023, communicating with the friends  and workers in Australia and New Zealand, the work you are undertaking in response to the church’s  concerns of prevention of child sexual abuse within our fellowship. In the interest of transparency, working openly and your invitation for all of us to support each other throughout this process, we  write this letter in reply. We have drafted a letter to the friends and workers of Australia and New  Zealand and will be attaching a copy of this letter for their viewing. We also welcome you to share this  information widely. This will open up dialogue to ensure that the measures being put in place have  input from all stakeholders and in accordance with standard two and three of the Child Safe Standards  of the Royal Commission undertaken in Australia (Commonwealth of Australia, 2017).

“Standard 2 – Children participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously.

a) Children are able to express their views and are provided opportunities to participate in  decisions that affect their lives.

b) The importance of friendships is recognised and support from peers is encouraged,  helping children feel safe and be less isolated.

c) Children can access sexual abuse prevention programs and information.

d) Staff and volunteers are attuned to signs of harm and facilitate child-friendly ways for  children to communicate and raise their concerns.

Standard 3 – Families and communities are informed and involved.

a) Families have the primary responsibility for the upbringing and development of their  child and participate in decisions affecting their child.

b) The institution engages in open, two-way communication with families and  communities about its child safety approach and relevant information is accessible. c) Families and communities have a say in the institution’s policies and practices. d) Families and communities are informed about the institution’s operations and  governance.”

At a recent meeting of concerned friends, a discussion was held regarding your letter of the  18th August, 2023, and we would like to present you with some feedback to help inform the advisory  group. We hope they will be able to address some of our concerns and that our questions will help  them in future decisions. In the absence of a direct contact on the advisory board, we are  communicating in this way in the hope that everyone is informed. For future communication, we  request a direct email to the advisory group. It has been noted that some survivors do not feel  comfortable to go to workers due to past traumatic experiences and would not feel comfortable with  information being filtered through senior workers.

While your focus is the protection of children and victim-survivors, it seems that we cannot ignore  other members in our fellowship that will take on a significant amount of risk due to the roles they  have. Risk assessments for these contexts need to be worked on transparently, as a matter of urgency. For example, our convention owners and families who have fellowship meetings in their home. How  can we assure them that they are protected from risk? How will they be involved in this process? Are  there contingencies in place such as appropriate insurance cover? Will visiting workers from overseas  hold the relevant child safety checks that are equivalent to our Working With Children Checks  (WWCC)? There is a duty to consider this aspect of our fellowship. It raises the question if conventions  and fellowship meetings should continue in the immediate future until appropriate safeguards have  been put in place.

Further concerns and questions have been raised and we would like to summarise them for you:

• Your letter expresses a desire to be open and transparent and highlights that the members of  the advisory committee wish to remain anonymous. While we understand the need for victim survivors to be respected in this process, these two points appear to contradict each other. Also, you mention that the group will need support of each one of us as they progress. How  can we offer this support throughout the process if there is no direct line of communication?

• In relation to your point of ‘consultation and engagement will be needed from time to time’ – there is a view that this consultation should occur right from the start. How does the advisory  group confidently report on the effect of CSA in the fellowship if they do not ask for survivor  stories from the beginning? How can they quantify the effect without substantial knowledge?

• Further to quantifying ‘effect’, how is that measured? Are they measuring the mental trauma  or the financial cost of after care? Are they counting families or individuals? Are they counting  historical cases where the predator/perpetrator has died? What is their scope when  completing risk assessments? Given the complexity, it would be advisable that these risk  assessments be conducted by a third party to avoid any conflict of interest or legal  ramifications.

• Who formed this group, when was it formed and who decided who should be part of this  advisory group? Was there a transparent, democratic process in its development?

• If the advisory group members do not offer the facility to engage with the wider community,  how can stakeholders have input in the process if they are only communicated with when the  advisory group deems it necessary? You may view it as avoiding external pressures or  distraction but from our perspective, it is in contradiction with the Child Safe Standards – ‘families and communities have a say in the institution’s policies and practices.’ What process  will be provided for collaboration?

• Thank you for providing us with the break down of the group. We would also like clarification  of demographics of the group. For example, how many are from New Zealand and each state  of Australia? Are all contexts being taken into consideration? It would be advantageous to have a separate advisory group for New Zealand that is in communication with the Australian  advisory group, considering there would be a possible difference in laws. It also establishes  local support for victims and accountability of the ministry in this region.

• Will there be accommodation within future planning to ensure these groups are victim centred  and will there be opportunity for listening groups/collaboration with the wider community?

• You highlight that all members of the advisory group have relevant clearances and training.  However, these clearances do not assure other victim-survivors that the current members  have not covered up abuse within the fellowship in the past. With this lack of transparency, it  is difficult to develop trust in the process.

• How long a term are members of the advisory group volunteering for? Will there be a rotation  of people on the group to share the load long term? An advisory group will be needed  indefinitely considering the scope of abuse and there is a need for it to include elements of  advocacy. It would seem that it is not a ‘one and done’ scenario.

• The advisory board is to advise the ministry and has expressed a desire to act impartially. How  can this process be impartial if there are workers on an advisory group that are advising the  workers? This appears to be a conflict of interest. Also, as overseers, you have knowledge of  who these members are but the community you serve does not. You have an advantage of  being able to communicate with them that we do not have. This does not promote impartiality.

• Further to the topic of impartiality, there is a concern that an advisory group, while coming  from a range of professions and experiences, cannot remain unbiased due to their connection  with the fellowship.

• We were made aware that the advisory group is going to use publicly accessible material to  inform their risk assessments and guidelines. Will an independent lawyer be engaged to  ensure that they are sound and rigorous enough to align with current Australian and New  Zealand legal standards? Once again, the engagement of a third-party is needed.

• How is ‘zero tolerance’ of harming of children defined by your ministry? We are aware of a  number of people still in our fellowship meetings that have allegations and convictions. When  will your ‘zero tolerance’ be followed through?

• How will our fellowship be made aware of the advice given by the advisory group? What  accountability procedures will be put in place? How will we know that the advice being given  has been informed by the law and stakeholders and implemented to fidelity by the ministry?

• You have acknowledged in your letter that the scope of work to be completed is large and  there has been a prioritisation of tasks to be undertaken. Can we please be provided with an  indication of areas deemed the highest risk that will be addressed first?

• In relation to accountability of the appointed overseers, what provisions will be in place there?  Would there be a procedure where grievances could be communicated and acted upon?

Important concerns raised that require an urgent response are repeated below:

• Due to the imminent preparations and conventions in Australia and New Zealand, further  clarification is sought on the progress of risk assessments and safety procedures for these  gatherings. This needs to be done in a timely and collaborative manner to ensure all  measures can be in place.

• Provision of an email address to communicate directly with the advisory group to ensure a  transparent, collaborative approach throughout the process.

Once again, thank you for being proactive in beginning the process for change. We hope that this  feedback will help you as this important work continues. As mentioned, we will share this letter with  the friends and workers of Australia and New Zealand as an attachment to their letter so that they are  aware of the concerns raised, avoiding a duplication of questions inundating the advisory group. We  look forward to a formal published and shared response to these concerns being addressed, in the  interests of transparency.

Yours in gratitude,

Concerned and Connected Friends of Australia and New Zealand

Guidelines for dealing with CSA/SA in Middle Tennessee

Guidelines for Elders/Wives dealing with CSA/SA

  1. Any allegations of CSA/SA amongst our fellowship meetings will be reported to the appropriate law enforcement immediately. 
  2. With a single allegation, all elders will be contacted immediately.
  3. The alleged perpetrator will be immediately told not to attend any meetings.
  4. Ministers in the field will then be notified, though they will not be involved in the initial process of hearing the allegations or reporting it to authorities.
  5. Any victims who decide to come forward or anyone with concerns can talk with any elder/elder’s wife. They do not need to go to the elder/elder’s wife where they usually attend fellowship meetings if they are more comfortable talking to someone else. Certainly, a victim may also be more comfortable talking to someone other than an elder/elder’s wife initially.
  6. Victims can report to authorities first then inform/discuss with the elder/elder’s wife as appropriate. 
  7. If a CSA/SA abuser – convicted or with allegations – moves to the area, the meeting in the area will not be polled to see if everyone is comfortable adding this abuser to the meeting. Rather, those who wish to have a bible study or meeting with this abuser may form a study group with those interested.
  8. Every elder/elder’s wife will take the Ministry Safe course every two years.
  9. For reference, Child Abuse Hotline (CSA): TN (877) 237-0004 and KY (877) 597-2331, Sexual Assault (SA) call 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). 

Guidelines for Middle Tennessee fellowship meetings:

  1. The fellowship meetings will be a safe place – meaning no known convicted or accused abusers of CSA/SA will be allowed attendance at fellowship meetings.
  2. Any elder and/or their wife will listen to an accusation or concern of CSA/SA from their respective meeting and will aid in reporting it to the authorities as warranted and legally required. (Any accusations/concerns can be made either to the elder or their wife or both together depending on situation and comfort level.  Accusations/concerns can be made to the elder or wife of another meeting if more comfortable.)
  3. Known offenders in the area will be shared with the elders and their individual meetings. Ministers will be informed of further communication to be disbursed.
  4. If you have children, please be aware of safe parenting to add another layer of safety to their welfare.
  5. Elders will make every effort to seat families together during the fellowship meetings.
  6. Elders will notify meeting attendees of friends and/or ministers visiting from other states/areas.
  7. For those visiting the meeting, elders will inform the visitor that there are children in the meeting and express that we have a zero-tolerance policy for CSA/SA.

WINGS Note: THese Guidelines were developed by 25 elders and their wives (not the workers).

Ministry Analysis and Confession

Dan McLeod sermon at Milltown Convention 2023

[First part not available]

… There’s joy in heaven when a sinner repents. Jesus went on to say, he that doeth evil hates the light, avoids the light, doesn’t want his evil to be exposed. But he said, he that doeth truth, a person who wants the truth, wants what is true and right and real, looks for light, looks for revelation, looks for exposure and confronts his or her own secrets and exposes them to the light. He said that his deeds may be manifest, may be made known ………. So that we expose ourselves to God and to others that God lets us know that we need to expose ourselves to. So that it can be obvious that we are walking with God.

Nicodemus was a man who wanted to follow Jesus. He wanted to be born again. Jesus had talked to him about being born again. He wanted that. He realised that this was a teacher who had come from God. He realised that there was great miracles and power in this name, in this man. He wanted to follow him. We read on later on that he began to do that. At first maybe in a kind of a secret way, in a quiet way but eventually more and more openly.

I’ve been aware over the years that there is power in coming to the light. I think of some people over the years who have exposed some things to me. I don’t remember asking them to do that.  Somehow, they felt that they needed to be open to somebody about what they were working through. Somehow, they dibbed me in. I’m talking about people who are part of our fellowship. One lady told me about how she had been addicted to painkillers. Sunday morning meeting every week; Wednesday night bible studies; no one knew she was addicted to painkillers. Another man came to me and revealed that if it wasn’t for his faith in Christ he would be living a homosexual lifestyle. He felt like he couldn’t do that because of his faith in Christ. He said that was his struggle, that was the flesh that he had. There have been others through the years who revealed things.

We aren’t told that we need to reveal everything to everybody, we aren’t told that in the scriptures but we are told to confess our faults to one another. There may be times, may be situations, where it is totally appropriate for us to confess some things to one another. It is hard to do. It is like confronting something in your own self. It is a challenge to do.

I think about Adam and Eve. The Lord had told them to not partake of this one tree. They did it anyway and their eyes were opened. The light revealed that they were naked. That is exactly how it happens for us, not so much from eating from a tree but from other things we come up against in life where we know it is the wrong thing to do but there is something about it that we really want, we think it is going to give us something, give us some kind of knowledge or give us some kind of experience that we haven’t had before that we would like to experience. God turned some light on us and then its really important what happens next. It is really important that we come to the light, or we stay in that light or go to more and more of that light.

I don’t understand much about this bit of Genesis 3 about Adam and Eve: They heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. God was walking in the garden in the cool of the day. I have a hard time visualizing exactly what that would have looked like. I don’t know if they could see him because it just says they heard the voice but they hid themselves from his presence. The Lord God called unto Adam in v9 and said unto him where art thou? Where are you? That’s a really important question for us. Where are you? And how we respond to that is really important. God shines his light and this is an invitation. An invitation to come forward and to reveal where we are and to not hide that from God and from others.

For those of you who aren’t part of our fellowship, we’d like to be really open with you about everything, about our fellowship, I say we and all of us in the ministry. We don’t want to hide things that you need to know. We don’t know everything ourselves, but we don’t want to hide the things that you would need to know. One thing that I will tell you that has happened to us this year as a fellowship and that is that there has been a string of revelations about people in our fellowship, very embarrassing revelations about some people’s personal lives and the way they treated others. We are dealing with that as a fellowship. We are working our way through that. Like someone said, its not a tragedy, well, it’s not a mark against any organisation that they have people who do wrong things. It’s a mark against any group of people if they have people with wrong things and they don’t deal with it in a proper way.

It’s not a surprise that human beings are sinners. That’s what we are. Unfortunately, we haven’t all handled it all well, these revelations, because we are sinners. We make mistakes, and then how we handle those mistakes we make more mistakes. I was reading in the Old Testament there are some times when OT prophets who were facing this crisis among the children of Israel, among  the Jews, these crises I should say. They prayed to God, they confessed their sins to God in an open, well sometimes it seems maybe in private and sometimes in an open public way. It wasn’t always Ezra Nehemiah and Daniel or others who did better and some others I haven’t found. They told in some of those prayers, confessions to God, that they had sinned and they talk about others who had sinned as well.

I’m not quite sure what to do with that. I feel like we ought to be open as a group about what we are struggling with. That we as a ministry need to be really open about our own faults so there can be joy in heaven over our ministry, instead of disappointment. A lot of us have felt a lot of feelings, a lot of feelings of disappointment, sorrow, shame and guilt about sometimes how we as individuals have acted and sometimes about the actions of other people.

I think about a time, 8 years ago or so, I was temporarily in another state. A lady came to me and told about a man in the meetings we were having, a man who was attending those meetings, who had harassed her and abused her for years. She asked us to confront him and do something about it. I didn’t know what to do. I talked about it a little bit with some other ministers there. They felt like she was kind of an unstable, difficult person to deal with. We ended up doing nothing.

It shouldn’t be a surprise to us that people are unstable and difficult when they are wounded. When they cry out to God, He hears that and He would love it if we would be as sensitive to that as He is, as responsive to that as He is. We want to do a better job about that. We haven’t done a very good job about hearing the cries around us and we want to do better about that. I want to do better about that.

So much of what we have heard about is about us brother workers, us guys, ministers, has been really disappointing. Sometimes we haven’t respected other people’s marriages. Sometimes we have looked lightly on our calling, sometimes we have, well the truth is that God has called some of us to be single. I don’t know if He called all of us in the ministry to be single. There were married ministers in the scripture. We have committed in recent years to be single and I can’t say that God has revealed to me that there is some young lady that I should be married to so it seems like I am supposed to be single, at least for now, and I haven’t done well at accepting that. At least for the time being I am single. That singleness or marriage is a gift from God, we read in I Corinthians 7. Every man has his proper gift of God, to be married or to be single. There are gifts involved in each of those.  Sometimes I haven’t looked for the gifts that there are in the situation God has me in.

One thing, young people that have been damaged, there has been trust damaged in our relationship with the people in our fellowship, between the ministry and what we call the friends, the believers, people who are believing in Christ and wanting to live the truth. Sometimes we in this ministry have damaged that trust by the way that we have acted. We have been demanding about our time in your homes, instead of being servants. That has eroded trust. I realise that there has been some trust damaged in the last few months but there has been trust damaged for many years. I have heard it all through the years.

Those are some things that God is shining a light on. It really matters how we respond to that, it really matters what we do next, that we come to the light, that we confess about where we are. When the Lord God spoke to Adam and Eve He said where are you? He is asking us that same question, where are you? He wants us to be honest about that first of all, where we are, and He wants us to be honest about where we are going.

When God made a covering for their nakedness, one thing about the light it not only exposes our faults, our mistakes, it exposes God’s provision for our mistakes, God’s provision for our thirst. There are people who are hungering and thirsting for righteousness. People who have even left our fellowship because they couldn’t in good conscience stay. We read in the scripture there are people who leave the believers for several reasons. We also read that hey might leave because they were not of us, they were not believers, they were anti-Christian. We also read that people might be consumed if we bite and devour them. It is not necessarily that they want to leave but because they have been bitten repeatedly they end up getting devoured and they are no longer there, no longer with us.

 [Story about a spring flowing with water in the Everett area. All sorts of people, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, come to get the clean pure water that they have heard about, because they are thirsty and they want to get clean.]

I wouldn’t have known about that water except someone told me. I wouldn’t have known about Jesus except someone told me. Down through the years I have found that there is water there. There have been a lot of times where I have been thirsty. There are a lot of times where I wished He would give me more water or maybe different water. He has given water. We can go to Him. There is water there. There is water for people who are thirsty. There is water for people who need to be clean. Let’s take advantage of that. The light is revealing that for us. Let’s focus on Him, focus on that relationship that we can have with Him that will help us to keep taking steps into the light, experiencing a little of the joy that there is going to be in heaven because there’s sinners who are turning away from what they have been.