Peniel Pentecostal Church

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Peniel Pentecostal Church is located in Pilgrims Hatch, Brentwood, Essex, UK. The church was founded by the now disgraced Bishop Michael Reid, and is currently under new leadership (below).

Peniel Church has more lately been publicised as 'Michael Reid Ministries', although the church retains the Peniel name for its college, school and choir. The school has over one hundred and forty children of mixed ability and performs well against its peer group as demonstrated in statistics produced by the Department for Education and Skills.^{[citation needed]}

1 Claims of miracles
2 Leadership
3 Controversy
4 References
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Claims of miracles

Along with his wife, Rev Ruth Reid, Reid travelled globally and claims to have witnessed miraculous healings through his ministry,^[1] although a 1999 investigation by the Advertising Standards Agency was unable to substantiate the claims.^[2]^[3]

[edit] Leadership

The church's founder, Michael Reid, is a former Metropolitan police officer and insurance salesman, and was made a bishop by the International Communion of Charismatic Churches in Benin City, Nigeria in 1995.^[4] Reid resigned from that organisation in 2001.

He is the author and co-author of several books and a founder member of the Christian Congress for Traditional Values (CCTV) and the Global Gospel Fellowship (GGF). He is closely associated with the Oral Roberts Evangelical Association in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Michael Reid has become a patron of the English Constitutional Convention.

On 5 April 2008, Michael Reid tendered his resignation from the church board and stepped down from pastoral duties in the church after admitting adultery ^[5]. The woman in question is believed to be the church's music director, a married mother of two. ^[6]

The Rev Peter Linnecar, Reid's senior pastor for 30 years, has taken over Mr Reid's responsibilites at the church.

[edit] Controversy

Controversy has surrounded Reid for many years and both he and Peniel Pentecostal Church have been the subject of many critical media articles. In 1999, the church received national publicity when Martin Bell stood for Parliament for Brentwood and Ongar constituency following allegations that the church were attempting to infiltrate the local Conservative Party.^[7]^[8] The allegations were investigated by Conservative Central Office who reported that they saw no evidence of entryism.^[9]

Some former church members have claimed the church is a cult, and relate experiences of poor treatment prior to and on their departure from the organisation.^[9]^[10]^[11]^[12] In 2004, all the other churches in the Brentwood and District Evangelical Fellowship (BADEF) resigned in protest against Peniel, leaving it as the only member.^[13] The church is no longer a member of the Evangelical Alliance, having left the group following controversial circumstances in 2005.^{[citation needed]}

In February 2008 the Advertising Standards Authority upheld a complaint that a mobile advertisement for CCTV, an organisation with ties to Peniel Pentecostal Church, was 'likely to cause serious or widespread offence or condone anti-social behaviour'. ^[14]^[15]