A former leader of Australia's Pentecostal churches has admitted the group ignored the rules of the movement when dealing with allegations against confessed pedophile Frank Houston.
The revelations came during today's hearing of the Royal Commission into child sex abuse.
"It hit me in a ten second period in a wave because I was like 'homosexual' -- getting my head around that. My conciousness went to hold on a minute we're not just talking about you know homosexuality, we're talking about pedophilia. So I can still remember it very clearly."
This is Hillsong senior pastor Brian Houston describing the moment he heard allegations his father, Frank, was a pedophile.
"(Counsel assisting: what did you do next after you had just been told that?) Cried. Went home and I was devastated to be honest with you. I was totally devastated."
The now-deceased Pastor Frank Houston allegedly molested a young boy during the 1960s.
However the allegations only surfaced in 1998.
In 1999 Frank Houston's Sydney Christian Life Centre merged with his son's church to form Hillsong, which has since grown into an international mega church.
Earlier in the hearing, Keith Ainge, the Former National Secretary of the Assemblies of God in Australia - an umbrella group representing the Pentecostal movement -- admitted they set aside the rules when dealing with the pedophilia allegations against Frank Houston.
Mr Ainge told the commission that the first the group heard of allegations against Frank Houston was when his son Brian -- who at the time was the national president of the AoG -- called a special meeting of the executive in December 1999.
"Do I take it that the meeting was happy to have Brian Houston with those tasks, notwithstanding that he was the son of the perpetrator? // We weren't happy, but we had no alternative since the complainant had refused to give his name, we had no access to him- the only access we had was through Brian Houston."
Rather than call for an independent investigation into Frank Houston's conduct, Brian suspended Frank Houston for two years, and recommended that he enter a restorative program so that he could eventually resume his role within the church.
This is despite a national conference prohibiting pedophiles from being restored to full ministry.
However the Commission has been told Frank Houston continued to deliver sermons during his suspension.
Earlier in the week, AHA told the commission Frank Houston offered him $10,000 and asked for forgiveness -- and that months later he was sent a cheque from Brian Houston.
Brian Houston says the money was not sent with the intention of silencing AHA.
"I wanted to be absolutely sure that the terms did not suggest that he could not go to the police and that it did not suggest that the document was all about keeping him quiet."
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