![]() ![]() ![]() The overwhelming majority of people inside ARISE are also not reading his blog and know nothing about this article. “The overwhelming majority of people outside of ARISE are not reading David Farrier’s blog (many have never heard of him), have never heard of ARISE (and don’t care), and are not glued to social media. While most of the material I received was censored, the general feeling during April this year was that if Arise just put their head down and ignored things, it would all just blow over. ![]() I know this is bullshit and they’ve painted with a much wider brush, because some of the stuff redacted is already public. That means anything blacked out is supposedly information involving “ the unwarranted disclosure of the affairs of another individual ”, or any “ legally privileged emails ”. Why so much censorship? Well, according to Arise’s privacy officer - who only ever signed off as “Brad” - anything censored fell under two pieces of the Privacy Act: sections s53(b)(i) and s53(d). ![]() If I didn’t know better I’d think I’d done a privacy request on a spy agency, not a church: They go on and on - almost all of it redacted. I wonder if he is doing similar pieces on other denominations or charities that also rely strongly on volunteers?” It felt like a hit-piece whose newsworthiness was only the recent airing of Disney’s documentary on Hillsong. “ Just a note to say that I read David Farrier’s piece and I was disappointed in its quality. The first piece I did was mostly about the mistreatment of volunteers - which is where we see Arise’s attitude of “ but wait, what about those other people? ” first, well, arise : I don’t think if they had that Farrier would have changed what he had written.” “what do you think of it and why didn’t the church respond to to Farriers questions and tell its side of the story including the good things it does?” “you are the 2nd person to bring that to my attention. “in 9 hours its already had 44 comments an 102 likes.” Then the emails are exchanged, mainly with concern over who’s reading Webworm : It’s a good little trick you can with any organisation, business or government agency in New Zealand.Īnd so I asked Arise to hand over what they had on me, internally. I am not a mindreader, so I decided to do the next best thing: I made a Privacy Act request, asking for all Arise emails, texts and electronic correspondence mentioning “ Webworm ” or “ David Farrier. Since I started writing about them in April of last year. In the midst of all this, I became curious what Arise leaders, and the board, thought of me during this entire process. Webworm understands Cummings has also had to deal with a barrage of hate mail from John Cameron’s supporters - including Arise staff. She’s been left sitting with tens of thousands of dollars in legal bills, thanks to legal action taken against her by various members of Arise. Things certainly didn’t work out so well for Charlotte Cummings, the counsellor engaged by Arise to lead the independent review. Split between adoration and worship of John, or those that are attempting to put their faith in other leaders. Their social media paints a portrait of happy families, but inside the leadership and board is split. Clearly with so many people leaving, they can’t fill the Michael Fowler Centre anymore. The Wellington campus is effectively temporarily shut, and while Ray and Emma Moore are still pastors, their congregation - what’s left of it - are all meeting at the Arise Centre with those from the Hutt Valley Campus until at least February. With Arise’s Auckland campus dead, the other Arise churches around New Zealand limp on. It was crickets from Arise itself, and only after multiple media reports did the church decide to update its website with a press release that Arise Auckland was goneburgers.Īs for John and Gillian Cameron? They’re selling their house and leaving for Australia, where they will be welcomed with open arms by a cookie-cutter Australian megachurch. It’s what these churches do when they face controversy.īen Carroll is the one who got on stage months ago and “honoured” John Cameron, the disgraced former leader of Arise. They’re taking the same terrible ideas, and the same congregation, and slapping a new brand on it. In short, long term Arise pastors Ben and Anna Carroll are quitting Arise. Last week, New Zealand media reported the Arise’s Auckland campus would be shutting down: “ Controversial mega-church Arise shuts doors in Auckland, starts anew ” reported Newshub’s Caitlin Rawling. I’ve recorded this newsletter as a podcast as well, for those that like to listen instead of read. It’s been a while since we talked about Arise megachurch, so I figured it was time for an update. A bunch of readers had direct experiences with the satanic panic, that showed how prevalent that shit got in society. The comments under last week’s Satanic Panic piece were illuminating and mind-blowing. ![]()
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