Kingdom Hope describes itself as a “Pentecostal, modern family church focusing on mission and discipleship” and is part of the International Network of Churches (INC), a network of churches mostly based in Queensland.
Cameron and his wife were welcomed to the church in a social media post which said: “With fresh anointing, huge hearts and the experience to match, we officially celebrated and welcomed Ps Brent and Annie Cameron as our new senior pastors of Kingdom Hope.
“We lift our eyes to the next God-ordained season of our church with expectancy and excitement.”
John Cameron has also delivered guest sermons at the Australian church, with one available to view on Kingdom Hope’s YouTube channel.
Today, Kingdom Hope declined to comment on his role. However, INC’s national director of church health, Gary Hourigan, said the church had carried out a full recruitment process.
“We are aware of the historical stories and all that about the Camerons,” he told Stuff.
“We have been developing a relationship with them for a while now, and we have a pretty rigorous assessment process that we go through to consider placements in our ministry positions.
“I would say we’re fully aware. We’ve got extensive references and we’ve done extensive assessments.”
While the brothers were in charge of Arise Church in New Zealand, former members alleged bullying and inappropriate behaviour.
Some of this behaviour allegedly included farting in their hands and putting it in the face of interns, “sack tapping” and grabbing people by the collar, RNZ reported at the time.
One of the more extreme accusations made against Brent Cameron was that he chased a young male intern around a hotel room naked.
This incident was claimed to have happened in Dunedin during a tour in 2014.
An independent review into these allegations received reports of church leadership sexually harassing members, overworking interns, and making racist remarks.
Among the 72 recommendations from the report were for Arise to make a genuine apology for the hurt caused and report all illegal behaviour to authorities.
Before the report was made public, John and Brent Cameron resigned from the church.
Brent Cameron released a statement at the time, saying: “I am deeply sorry to God, and all members, both past and present, of Arise, where my behaviour has not met the values of a Christian minister, or honoured the name of Jesus.”
