Response to Henry Sheppard Allegations

A Comment on Behalf of the Australian Assemblies of God National Executive

For a long time Henry Sheppard has brought all sorts of spurious allegations against members of the Australian AOG National Executive and against other AOG Pastors. He will continue to do so in the future.

The National Executive does not intend to respond individually to Mr. Sheppard's ridiculous allegations. They do not warrant it.

If any AOG member is genuinely concerned by the allegations made by Mr. Sheppard then that member should approach his or her Pastor who will either provide an explanation or arrange for that member to be given an explanation about the matter.

However, readers of Mr. Sheppard's material are entitled to a general comment from those that Mr. Sheppard is attacking.

In Mr. Sheppard's publications on the Internet he has referred to a book called "The Evidence" that he wrote and arranged to be published. The book concerned a dispute that existed between the National Executive and Greg Sowerby.
Last year, the parties to that dispute were reconciled in accordance with Scripture. They are trying to put it behind them. Unfortunately this has not satisfied Mr. Sheppard. In fact, to the contrary, Mr. Sheppard has continued to try to publicise the dispute and has now tried to attack the good faith of the reconciliation.

This has resulted in a bizarre situation where the parties to the dispute have agreed that it is over and have been reconciled in accordance with Scripture. But Mr. Sheppard - who is not even involved in the dispute - cannot let it rest and continues to try to attack the National Executive using the dispute as a vehicle.

Not only is Mr. Sheppard trying to publicise the dispute by way of the Internet but he is also planning a video on the subject.

Interestingly, this has led to Mr. Sowerby - the person who was involved in the dispute - completely disassociating himself from Mr. Sheppard's actions in this regard.

It is true that some members of the National Executive took legal action against Mr. Sheppard on account of the defamatory allegations which appeared in "The Evidence". Action was only taken after Mr. Sheppard sent a letter in which he threatened to launch a publicity campaign with the object of seeing 100,000
people leave the Assemblies of God. The legal action was designed to minimise the harm to the Fellowship caused by Sheppard's accusations.

This attack on the Assemblies of God by Mr. Sheppard failed dismally.
Our Members treated it with the contempt it deserved.

Mr. Sheppard has made much of the fact that he could not afford a lawyer to defend himself. However he refused very strong advice from a District Court judge that even if he were to conduct his defence on his own he should get an opinion from a lawyer who specialised in the area. The judge said that this would not be very expensive at all. To our knowledge, Mr. Sheppard has not followed that advice.

Of course "truth is a defence". If Mr. Sheppard could prove - with or without a lawyer - that any of the many allegations complained of were true, then he would not be found guilty of defamation in relation to that allegation. However, Mr. Sheppard did not try to defend the truth of any of the statements that he had made.

The members of the National Executive were entitled to an award of damages against Mr. Sheppard but elected not to pursue it.

Now that the dispute between Mr. Sowerby and the National Executive has ended, no doubt Mr. Sheppard will continue his attack on the National Executive and the leadership of the AOG.

Mr. Sheppard will not meet with members of the National Executive to discuss the issues. He simply takes them straight to the public domain.

A possible guide to Mr. Sheppard's motivation occurred in August 1996. Mr. Sheppard threatened to send out another letter which contained many untruths unless he received an "acceptable offer".

When Mr. Sheppard's representative was asked what Mr. Sheppard meant by an "acceptable offer" (because Mr. Sheppard would not speak with us directly) we were informed that Mr. Sheppard wanted $20,000.00 and that if he received this amount of money then he would be quiet and that he would stop all publications.

Discussions in January this year suggest that Mr. Sheppard's price has increased to $25,000.00.

As stated, it seems likely that Mr. Sheppard will continue his attacks unless he receives the money that he is seeking.

Once again, if any member of the AOG is genuinely concerned about any issue that Mr. Sheppard raises - or that is raised by anyone else - they should ask their Pastor about the matter.

Or contact the National Office. 03-98724811

Yours sincerely

ASSEMBLIES OF GOD NATIONAL EXECUTIVE