What’s Up With Graeme Kirkwood & the Arise Church Board?

The Arise board has done what they said they wouldn’t do: they’ve commented on specific allegations — in order to deny them. Thing is: they’re wrong.

Hi,

We’re in the weeds now, readers. This saga about Arise Church was always going to end up here — in weird specifics, as the church desperately scrambles through various efforts at damage control.

They got so desperate this week, they did the thing they kept saying they couldn’t do: The Arise board commented on a specific individual allegation. 

Why? It appeared to be an attempt to shut down the story about Brent Cameron harassing and bullying a member of staff — which now has traction on RNZ.

This is such a weedy piece, I wasn’t going to send it out as a newsletter — instead leaving it on the Webworm.co site for readers to come to.

But — this stuff is important. The victims are owed maximum eyeballs on this stuff. And I think it’s important to document how the church is handling all this — because believe me, they want it all to go away. 

David.

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PS: For iOS users, there is an App you can read Webworm on. It treats Webworm a bit like a magazine:

If you haven’t already and would like to, you can become a paying Webworm subscriber. Only ever do this if it doesn’t cause you any kind of financial hardship:

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Could the Key Characters Please Stand Up

The two main players in the Arise Church scandal — brothers John Cameron and Brent Cameron — disappeared almost immediately after Webworm started reporting on the Church on April 4. 

The independent Pathfinding review was cited as the reason the brothers couldn’t talk. It’s what Webworm has been told, and it’s what other media like 1News, RNZ and Stuff have also been told.

Kingdom PR — the agency brought on board to help — also vanished into thin air.

Since then, the remaining conduit for the media has been the Arise Church board — helmed by Graeme Kirkwood. 

As well as being paid by Arise, Kirkwood runs Global Church Solutions, and has formerly been associated with churches like Planet Shakers and Hillsong. Yes, that Hillsong.

It’s fair to say that Graeme Kirkwood has been sluggish to respond to Webworm, and his responses have mostly lacked any kind of meaningful content.

Case in point:

On April 14, when queried about who sat on the Arise Board, and if John and Brent were resigning, Graeme replied:

“The Board of Arise are unable to comment any further as the matters are under independent legal process and review
- Graeme R. Kirkwood, Arise Board Chairperson”

On April 16, John and Brent Cameron had “stood aside” — prompting Webworm to ask if this meant they were gone for good:

“We reaffirm our earlier statements made in regard to changes to the board and the independent review that is currently underway. We await its findings. Due to sensitivity and privacy reasons we are unable to comment on specific allegations or individual employment circumstances.

- Graeme R. Kirkwood, Arise Board Chairperson”

And then on April 27, when Webworm put allegations to the board that Brent Cameron had shown his genitals to a staff member (who didn’t want to see them), the response from the board went like clockwork:

“The Arise Board reiterates that due to legal and privacy obligations we are unable to comment on specific allegations or individual employment circumstances.

- Graeme R. Kirkwood”

Following that “we are unable to comment” line, Webworm published the story about Brent Cameron bullying a staff member, chasing them down a hallway, and allegedly showing them his genitals.

It was crickets from Brent Cameron, John Cameron, or — as was by then tradition — Arise Board Chairperson Graeme R. Kirkwood.

Imagine our surprise then when RNZ ran the story about Brent Cameron’s actions over two weeks later — and there was comment from Graeme R. Kirkwood:

The Arise board chairperson Graeme Kirkwood, in a statement to RNZ several hours after this story was published, said the board was unable to comment on any complaint or incident due to obligations of confidentiality and privacy.

“As far as the Arise Board is aware, Brent Cameron has never been naked in front of any interns, or chased any interns while naked ... The board confirms that it has not received any such complaint in respect of interns.”

Huh. 

Graeme Kirkwood staring intently at his Toshiba laptop (source: Kirkwood’s Twitter account)

Could the Real Graeme R. Kirkwood Please Stand Up?

Here we suddenly had Graeme R. Kirkwood — the Graeme R. Kirkwood — doing the exact opposite of what he’d been parroting to Webworm since this whole mess started months ago (including when we asked him about the incidents involving Brent Cameron): 

He was very much commenting on specific allegations. And with very specific wording.

Let’s look again:

“Brent Cameron has never been naked in front of any interns, or chased any interns while naked.”

I think it’s fair to say a typical reader would come away thinking that Brent Cameron had never chased anyone, or shown them his genitals without consent.

Webworm knows this is incorrect. 

We’ve spoken to multiple people, including first-hand witnesses, about him chasing someone through a Dunedin hotel corridor while saying he was naked and singing “I was made for loving you”. It’s also highly likely the board was aware of the incident. 

Webworm knows that John Cameron was informed about Brent’s actions in the Dunedin hotel by the end of 2021 at the latest.

Cameron was on the Arise board with Kirkwood until shortly after our first story ran on April 4.

We are also aware of former Arise members reporting this incident to the Pathfinding investigation commissioned by the Arise board.

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A Simple Choice of Words

So let’s look closer then at the wording Graeme used: “Cameron has never been naked in front of any interns.”

Here’s the thing: The victim in this story wasn’t an intern. Though they’d served as an intern previously, at the time of the incident, they were a staff member.

The whole thing begs two main questions:

1. Why was Graeme Kirkwood now commenting on specific allegations?

2. Had Graeme Kirkwood used that specific word — “intern” — so as to technically tell the truth, whilst knowing very well a staff member was chased?

This might sound paranoid on my behalf, but I have been watching Arise Church since this mess started. The very first press release they put out — “Arise appoints independent review in response to students’ ministry school experiences” — was a masterclass in ring-fencing. Businesses in chaos, take note.

Back then — almost two months ago now — Arise Church was absolutely aware that the allegations we’d reported extended far beyond their “Ministry School”. I’d argue they knew that far before Webworm came along, and if not: the extent of the problem was made very clear in the piece.

And so in one swoop they attempted to make out like it just affected a tiny part of a much larger entity.

Having seen this, we were pretty cynical about Kirkwood’s highly specific terminology in his statement to RNZ.

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Whack-a-Mole

Webworm emailed the Arise Board (aka Graeme Kirkwood) about this on May 17:

If you are commenting on this case specifically, I have a few questions:

Is the board aware of any complaints about Brent Cameron exposing his genitals to, or being naked in front of anyone, including current or former Arise staff members or congregation members.

Is the board aware of any complaints about Brent Cameron chasing anyone, including current or former Arise staff members or congregation members?

Is it aware of any allegations that Brent Cameron stood outside a hotel room where another person had locked themself inside, while telling that person he was naked and singing 'I was made for loving you'?

Thanks very much.

Kirkwood replied the next day:

We continue to read each new individual story with great sadness, and acknowledge the genuine pain and hurt expressed within these stories. On behalf of the Board, I want to acknowledge the pain and suffering of those who have bravely shared their own experiences.

To answer your question on commenting publicly, we recognise the media has an important role to play and is helping in bringing to light serious issues that need to, and are currently being addressed. During this period the Board has been and is careful to balance its legal and privacy obligations while the review takes place, alongside its responsibility to respond to completely false or defamatory statements in the public arena - whilst also not discrediting or minimising the need for real change within our organisation and culture. 

We are thankful for every individual who has engaged with the review process and has courageously carved the way forward for significant change to take place. We give them our commitment as a Board that changes will be made.

- Graeme R. Kirkwood

As usual — whilst using a number of words — Graeme had said absolutely nothing.

It felt like the most annoying game of journalism whack-a-mole ever invented. We went back with very specific questions:

Graeme, 

to be clear if you are making public statements to the media saying that Brent has never been naked in front of any interns or chased interns while naked, while knowing that either:

a) there are complaints that he has done those things (or similar) in front of anyone else, including staff or congregation members, or

b) there are complaints that he has chased people, only not while naked

... it makes it seem more like you're doing PR for Brent Cameron than respecting the victims and correcting defamatory statements. If the answers to any of the questions in my previous email are yes, then your statement in respect of interns is at best misleading. These are those questions again. I request that you address them directly this time please:

Is the board aware of any complaints about Brent Cameron exposing his genitals to, or being naked in front of anyone, including current or former Arise staff members or congregation members.

Is the board aware of any complaints about Brent Cameron chasing anyone, including current or former Arise staff members or congregation members?

Is it aware of any allegations that Brent Cameron stood outside a hotel room where another person had locked themselves inside, while telling that person he was naked and singing ‘I was made for loving you’?

If you're not willing to address these questions directly, I'm not sure you're engaging in good faith.

[...]

I think if the church is willing to go out publicly with a statement about this behaviour in respect of interns, then it needs to be clarified whether that statement is misleading or at best deliberately selective.

Whack-a-mole. A deeply annoying game (Source: the internet)

Graeme Kirkwood replied with this:

Arise is not doing PR for Brent, in any capacity. We as a Board are aware of the below accusations and a formal process is underway. 

In terms of being open and honest, as you are aware, the Board is bound by multiple pieces of legislation that have privacy requirements at this time. 

Therefore, our current responses can only be to correct mis-information, or to provide a response to questions that do not have a legal restriction around them.

He then repeated that filler paragraph he always includes about reading “each new individual story with great sadness”. 

As usual, it’s signed “Graeme R. Kirkwood”.

Webworm was getting very tired and replied with this:

So to be clear, you gave the following statement:

"As far as the Arise Board is aware, Brent Cameron has never been naked in front of any interns, or chased any interns while naked ... The board confirms that it has not received any such complaint in respect of interns."

Knowing that there were other allegations along similar lines, just involving people who weren't interns? Do you see how this could be seen as misleading, or highly selective language at best?

We await his response. 

In the meantime, this is Graeme’s last tweet — sent on April 17, in the midst of Webworm’s reporting — and 10 days before our piece dropped on Brent Cameron.

-Additional reporting by Hayden Donnell

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Just before I go — Flightless Bird is out. My new thing. It’s kinda fitting that the debut episode is about… religion. 

American Christianity, to be specific. American megachurches, to be even more specific. The types of institutions John Cameron, Brent Cameron and Graeme Kirkwood idolise so much. Trust me: There would be no Arise Church without America.

Flightless Bird is out now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts — just look under the Armchair Expert feed.

New episodes drop weekly on Tuesdays in the US (Wednesdays if you’re in Aotearoa). I hope you like it — so far I’ve been over the moon with the feedback!

Much aroha,

David.