Brian Houston case deferred until 2022

The court case in Sydney against Hillsong senior pastor Brian Houston has been delayed until next year.

Australian website Eternity News reports that a local court deferred his case until 27 January 2022 when the date of his full trial is due to be announced.

Houston has pleaded not guilty via his lawyer.

New South Wales police charged Houston in August with concealing information about sexual abuse committed by his father in the 1970s.

The charge followed a two-year police investigation.

The elder Houston abused a number of children in his native New Zealand, but the case before the court concerns the abuse of Australian survivor Brian Sengstock as a young boy.

In a statement in July, Brian Houston insisted that he did not find out about his father's abuse until 30 years after the event and that he was honouring the victim's "multiple requests not to inform the police".

"The law at the time granted an exception to reporting a crime of this nature when a person had a reasonable excuse not to report," Houston claimed.

"This state law has since further clarified that this type of situation - when an adult victim of child abuse explicitly does not want the matter reported - qualified as a reasonable excuse under the law."

News
Wycliffe celebrates ‘remarkable moment’ as Bible translation advances at rapid pace
Wycliffe celebrates ‘remarkable moment’ as Bible translation advances at rapid pace

“The day is getting closer when everyone has access to God’s word in their own language, thanks to the amazing momentum in the work of Bible translation that has continued in the past 12 months,” Wycliffe Bible Translators has said. 

Open letter urges Northern Ireland to reject conversion therapy ban
Open letter urges Northern Ireland to reject conversion therapy ban

Conversion only seems to be a problem if it goes in one direction.

Pope urges Church to find its voice in secular France
Pope urges Church to find its voice in secular France

France was previously known as the "first daughter" of the Catholic Church.

Church in Wales pauses plans to allow gay marriage
Church in Wales pauses plans to allow gay marriage

The Church in Wales has pulled back from plans to allow homosexual weddings to take place in churches.