Tuesday 18 March 2008

More Hillsong

Following on from yesterday, the SMH details financial and managerial links between Hillsong and Mercy ministries, and Gloria Jeans and Mercy ministries.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd be far more interested in the complex web of financial and personal relationships between Anglican School boards, parish councils of Anglican churches through Sydney, and the boards and senior executives of say the top 50 corporations in Australian.
If that were ever discolsed it would make for far more interesting reading

Gordon Cheng said...

That would be fascinating!

I can't see that there is anything untoward with Gloria Jeans sponsoring a church ministry, in and of itself.

Anonymous said...

"untoward?" - wouldn't you charitably assume this is a Christian businessmen using his wealth for ministry?
I might have some reservations about the particular ministry and you might have some other ideas about where it should go - but his giving like this sounds to me like Christian generosity
I suspect it would look far less suspicious in the States where giving like this is the norm rather than the exception

Gordon Cheng said...

Sure. I was agreeing with your point, I think.

Anonymous said...

sorry - will drop my hermeneutic of suspicion forthwith.
my biggest problem with Gloria Jeans is the coffee itself - a Gloria Jeans cappacinno in Chatswood Westfield was possibly the worst coffee I've ever tasted. Don't want to sound all coffee snob but this was a foul brew

Melinda McJames said...

I think the more interesting comparison is when you compare the qualifications and ratio of fundraising/corporate staff to caring staff of Anglican organisations and those of Mercy Ministries. MM is scandalously quiet on qualifications and it does seem to have a disproportionate number of people in corporate rather than program roles.

I have no issue with any business owner using his/her profits to support any legal activity they like, more credit to them for supporting something with a charitable, if misguided and naive (in the case of MM) intent.