March 4, 2021
Hillsong Church founder Brian Houston has sent an email of apology to the the whole church, acknowledging that Hillsong East Coast “failed to be the kind of church it should be” in light of the extramarital affair scandal that forced founding pastor Carl Lentz out in 2020 and led to a leadership crisis. “I accept responsibility for these failings and apologize unreservedly,” Houston said, and promised to implement new structures to prevent future scandals.
The email comes on the heels of the largest scandal in the enormously influential church’s history, in which Lentz was ousted for an affair with a Brooklyn jewelry designer. Lentz left Hillsong Church with his wife and their three children and is currently living in California. The move sent shockwaves through Hillsong’s celebrated attendees, leading high profile members like Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez to cut ties with the church and unverified reports of more indiscretions were printed.
Anwar Fazal holding the smallest radio in the world. It is on a keychain and half the size of a matchbox.
FEB 13 is celebrated annually as World Radio Day. I grew up in the early 1940s where radios were a supremely addictive global communications tool.
My family had our first radio sometime in 1948 when I was seven years old. The three families who shared the home upstairs and business downstairs always had their different radio stations, local and global, for news and music and I learnt about diversity in words and music.
Because of my teenage passion for sports, particularly cricket, I was primarily tuned to BBC, listening patiently for their sport commentaries. Interestingly, it drew me to world news and serious in-depth commentaries of a special kind, apart from all kinds of music and especially comedy. Laughter is always good medicine, as we know.