Apology over cult conference and church convention clash

Christchurch Town Hall management has apologised to anti-cult conference organisers for failing to disclose during the booking process that an evangelical church was holding a convention in the building at the same time.The Decult conference, held over Labour Weekend, was aimed at improving support services for cult leavers and raising public awareness about the physical, psychological and spiritual harm caused by coercive high-control groups.Revival Centres Church members from Australia and New Zealand also came together for a "weekend of encouragement" on the theme "The Joy Set Before Us".Revival Centres is a strict Pentecostal church founded in Melbourne with assemblies across New Zealand and globally, although some former members have described it as a "doomsday cult" founded on abuse.A New Zealand Revival Centres spokesperson rejected any suggestion the church was a cult.Decult trustee and MC Mark Darbyshire.Supplied / Kai Jonathan LeeDecult trustee and MC Mark Darbyshire, who left a Revival Fellowship 10 years ago, said it was a bizarre coincidence that was confronting for some conference attendees."I couldn't believe it, partly because it seems like I can never quite escape this Revival movement - it's still always around me - and partly as a trustee of Decult I was concerned about the experience of our attendees and the religious trauma that might be triggered by seeing an evangelical group there," he said."It was a bit of a shock for me to realise that the group I was born into, which I consider to be a cult, was actually going to be downstairs."Hearing worship songs and speaking in tongues can be really triggering when you've been impacted by fundamentalist Pentecostal Christianity."Former Geelong Revival Centre member Ryan Carey sat on a Decult panel in the Limes Room as the church group met downstairs in the Avon Room.Livestream footage of the Revival Centres convention showed a song leader suggesting attendees sing louder.Former Geelong Revival Centre member Ryan Carey on a Decult panel.Supplied / Kai Jonathan Lee"Apparently we've had a few complaints upstairs with the noise, let's just ratchet it up a bit more," the man said.Melbourne-based principal pastor Simon Longfield later joked about someone being kicked out of the church, saying "This is good deculting, isn't it?".Dunedin Revival Centres Church pastor Graeme McKinstry said he discovered the Decult conference was being held at the Town Hall after reading an RNZ story days before the convention."We weren't concerned by them, they were concerned by us," he said."We don't see ourselves as a cult. Allegations are easy to make. I've no doubt that some people would take offence to some of the things we believe, that's true of anything. We don't control people's lives."I've been a pastor for many, many years. If I felt there was anything untoward, I certainly wouldn't be involved in it."McKinstry said his church had not been connected to the Geelong Revival Centre for more than 50 years."We would see them as very autocratic and authoritarian. The only similarity is that we share a similar name," he said."Some people are determined to draw connections that frankly don't exist."Decult director Anke Richter.Supplied / Kai Jonathan LeeDecult organisers said Venues Ōtautahi advised them early in the planning process that another group was hosting an event at the Town Hall but they were not told who it was until the day before the conference, leaving little time for risk mitigation.Decult director Anke Richter said organisers had a duty of care to inform guests about the Revival Centres gathering, given a speaker, trustee and some attendees had experienced harm associated with the church.She said they were not suggesting Venues Ōtautahi should have refused the Revival booking but a failure to disclose the information when requested meant they did not have time to consider additional safeguards."Our primary concern is that we were not given critical information despite repeatedly asking Venues Ōtautahi for it. Safety and wellbeing are fundamental to a trauma-informed event and being told only 16 hours before opening left us with little time to prepare for that," she said."It was our duty of care to inform our guests, reassure them and apply appropriate measures. For some cult survivors, hearing worship songs can be deeply distressing and triggering. Some attendees chose not to come because of this."We are not questioning the other group's right to be there, we are questioning the lack of transparency and communication that prevented us from properly supporting our attendees."Venues Ōtautahi chief executive Caroline Harvie-Teare .RNZ / Nate McKinnonVenues Ōtautahi chief executive Caroline Harvie-Teare confirmed staff did not detail the type of event being held at the same time as the Decult conference, despite organisers asking for information "some time ago"."That's on us. That is an error. If we had taken the time to actually dig into the event types - and while I can't talk to the conflicting perspectives of those events - we should have identified that risk and acknowledged that for our client," she said."We have apologised to them for that oversight. Obviously it's not good enough, there are sensitivities associated with those events and the people attending them. I can appreciate and understand why they were frustrated and, more so, upset for those who were negatively affected."While there was security and wristbands for event attendees, Harvie-Teare said Venues Ōtautahi would better assess event management risks and share broad information about bookings in future.