Open Letter to Thomas Cooney Pastor of Victory Galway from Mike Garde Director of DI.

Victory, Abundant Life and the new name is Victory Galway…………….

It was good to receive your call today and to be able to discuss the issues involved in the formation of Victory Galway.  Your position is that you are open to dialogue and to meet but only if we take down the posts that reference you which you regard as untrue. I am willing to meet you without any preconditions. I have also stressed that we will give you the right of reply without the need for your document to be edited by us. If there specific untruths we will immediately take them down when they are brought to our attention. You refuse to budge from your preconditions.

Fundamentally, we agreed to disagree. You did confirm that Abundant Life is being closed down. You also confirmed that your former Church was governed by a Trust which Like Victory in Dublin means that you do not have to give the public any idea where the money has gone. Companies have to publish accounts but Trusts do not.

Because you were resolute in your opinion that you did not wish to prepare a response I have gone some way to meet your request and have consulted my correspondent in regard to the articles written which reference you.

Dear XXXXX,
I was contacted by Thomas today. He claims that he is being misrepresented in regard to his position in the post you wrote about him. You could give evidence for these conclusions? Otherwise I could be ruining a possible avenue of dialogue. If you can’t stand over them I will amend them.

Thanks

Mike

Hi Mike,

My posts were based on the testimony of former members of Tom Cooney’s church and members of other local churches here that know Living Word far better than I do. I cannot verify the information as it based on the testimony of others and so is not first hand. This of course is also true regarding Hade as almost everything posted is not first hand info.

I will leave it to your discretion to edit or delete my articles as you feel necessary. It is true he is a business man but so is Hade and they will both point to that as the reason for their financial capability which surely must be taken with a pinch of salt.

I added some responses below too but as I have said, make whatever changes or deletions you want. Do we believe the testimony of former members of these groups or do we give credence to the leaders over the testimony of former members? Everything I ever posted was either first hand knowledge or testimony of past members. I have no first hand knowledge of Tom Cooney but some of my sources would not lie regarding the issues as they are in some way sympathetic to Tom.

http://dialogueireland.wordpress.com/2011/11/17/abundant-life-victory-and-possible-surrender-in-the-living-word/

Another potential step could be the partnership with another local church. We know that Brendan Hade has close ministerial ties to Thomas Cooney, Pastor of another Pentecostal church in Galway called Living Word. Thomas shares the same ministerial roots and theological views of Brendan. Thomas and Brendan have enjoyed a good working relationship over the years and it is reported that surprisingly, Living Word has much closer connections to Victory than Abundant Life ever did. It is also reported that Living Word is undergoing its own struggles albeit on a much smaller scale to those of Abundant Life so a potential partnership between the newly branded Victory Church in Galway helmed by Brendan Hade and Living Word could be mutually beneficial. This would possibly involved the initial shared use of Living Word’s facility until Brendan could source his own facility and furnish it to a required standard. The question remains though would Thomas Cooney be willing to dilute his congregation with the toxic influence of Abundant Life members who still have not been vaccinated from the indoctrination of the Sanfords? It would be a risky move on Cooney’s part or indeed any other minister in Galway who would potentially entertain a contaminant like Abundant Life into their church, polluting and infecting their own congregation much like the Sanfords polluted and infected their followers…..Monkey See, Monkey Do!

http://www.livingwordchurch.ie/

All of this is just speculation however as no one, not even Brendan Hade can foresee how this is all going to play out in reality. We have merely constructed some potential outcomes considering the facts and evidence currently available. Dialogue Ireland has thus far been right on the money with its recent predications related to ALCC so it will be interesting to see looking back months from now, how prophetic these thoughts really are. Finally, why would Hade wish to take on this poisoned chalice? Surely, his own financial problems would keep him out of town? He is a venture capitalist who sees the distressed assets and wishes to build his empire from the failure of the Sanfords. Mutton dressed up as lamb. During the boom years the prosperity theology seemed to be true, Bertie Ahern’s codology with a spiritual veneer. Now it looks like a busted flush. Christians who advocate this view point seem totally off the wall in this current situation. This Nama or Celtic Tiger ideology is now shown for what it was all the time a diseased patient in the final stages of rigor mortis. Looking at Living Word’s web site it does not give the impression of being up to the challenge. Have we here a take over as well as an amalgamation? It is my intelligence from Galway that Living Word is also losing members. As I said they also represent the prosperity trajectory but with a quieter, Irish flavour and without the extreme control of members. Some from ALCC will find the transition to Living Word  easy.

 

http://dialogueireland.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/brendan-hade-is-not-associated-with-kevin-sanford-victory-has-not-taken-over-abundant-life/

 

We have so far remained somewhat quiet on the Living Word aspect of this church and Thomas Cooney’s involvement in proceedings. We know that Thomas Cooney was also experiencing the similar financial issues to those of Kevin Sanford.

My question in brackets and reply is highlighted

(Evidence for this?)

It apparently was well known in Galway with other churches that Cooney had lost a lot of members over the last year or two just like ALCC and so was struggling like the Sanfords.

Cooney is another example of a Celtic Tiger Pastor,

(How did you reach this conclusion? Is he not an example of someone who is a successful businessman?)

His house shows his very expensive tastes and he was known to drive expensive cars too.
living on the crest of the boom to strengthen his prosperity doctrine and living like a king off the proceeds of his congregations giving.

(Would you not say his success reinforced his prosperity doctrine, and what evidence have you he lived off the congregation? Did he have a high income rather than take funds from the church?)

I do not know the split for business and personal income. The same is true for Hade. If Cooney provides evidence to the contrary you should remove this, but to just state that he never took money from the church is something only a fool would believe.

(Tom we have no idea what salary you were taking from the Church and unlike ALCC

who had accounts published because your Church was a Trust we have no way of verifying what came from your business and what arose came by way of Church funds?)

Despite having a smaller less successful church than Abundant Life,

(That is clear.)

Cooney also over reached way beyond his means like Kevin Sanford and Brendan Hade.

(Have you any evidence for that statement?)

His church had a smaller congregation than ALCC, which is a well known fact. Ask anyone in Galway! He overreached because he had to be rescued by Hade with the merger….the evidence is there from the merger. If Cooney was independently successful he would not need to go working for Hade.
The current recession has brought all three to the point of economic ruin and so we see the unfolding events in Galway as a last ditch attempt to rescue the three financially struggling churches of Victory, Living Word and Abundant Life.

(We have evidence of the former but do you have of T?)

This new union is somewhat similar to the economic union and treaty that Germany and France are now trying to impose on all EU states to rescue the EURO. Brendan, doing his best impersonation of Angela Merkel, has installed himself as the new dictator in town handing down his law to these struggling Galway prosperity churches. Sanford and Cooney are falling into line as puppets as they know they have no choice in the matter with their new IMF-esque overlord Brendan Hade controlling the market. As with our own economic woes the bondholders, i.e. Cooney, Sanford and Hade walk away Scot free without any liability or suffering from their financial mistakes and instead just like the taxpayers of Europe, the members of Living Word are now propping up the failings of Kevin Sanford and vice versa, former members of Abundant Life are now paying for the mistakes of Thomas Cooney and Brendan Hade. In all of this we see struggling church members paying for the mistakes of their Pastors. This is presented to these churches as “Promoting the Gospel”. Instead we see cars, houses and jets being promoted instead of the gospel.

We can see evidence of this with Thomas Cooney’s house that he has currently put up for sale. Even in this down turned economy he is still looking for €625000 for his current mansion in Carnmore, Galway.

One can only imagine what he originally paid for the house (from church funds has been deleted from our post as we have no evidence to show this is true.)  in the boom times. Thomas too is feeling the pinch and must downgrade his lifestyle too. The following are some pictures from his house that Abundant Life members may not be familiar with. Abundant Life members should note that their tithes will now be propping up Cooney’s finances too while he continues his extravagant lifestyle based on his belief in the prosperity theology.

http://www.daft.ie/searchsale.daft?id=587352

At this point the members of this newly formed church must look at the evidence presented by Dialogue Ireland and decide if they want to continue to be a participant in a ministry built around deception and extravagance. They may very well ask themselves where God is in all of this. Those congregation members that continue to support and defend Brendan Hade, Thomas Cooney and the Sanfords in their ineffective showbiz approach to Christianity, must stand up and be counted. If they wish to have a superficial experience whereby they look for entertainment from God, then this new church may be for them. If on the other hand, they want to be able to critically evaluate what is happening to them they need to get help before they spend another ten years lost in space orbit. This is what happened to people who were involved with the King of King’s in Tuam. They did not learn from their experience but rather entered deeper into denial and lost even more of their cash, their independence and their ability to know what had happened to them.

We will talk to anyone in the strictest confidence that requires assistance to break from this addictive form of religion. Write to info@dialogueireland.org

We repeat that anyone who feels this report is untrue will be facilitated with a full right of reply.

PS We appeal to Pastor Thomas Francis Cooney to consider opening up the issue of the ALCC being brought to a forum composed of Christian elders drawn from the Christian Churches in Galway. The purpose of this would be to provide a forum for the exploration of the issues concerning the abuse of power in ALCC, the violation of Human Rights, the exploitation of workers and volunteers.

Also the charges that there were examples of spiritual and emotional abuse of members. An exploration of the Gospel of Prosperity as not only a heretical expression of Christianity but a false gospel. Also there needs to be an evaluation of what has happened to the funds given by the members over the years and an audit of the stewardship of the Sanfords in view of their total abdication of their responsibilities in this regard.

For this to fall within the terms of reference of scripture there would be no recourse to secular legal sanctions but would be done subject to 1 Cor 6 which calls for the wise to adjudicate within the Christian context. A neutral Presiding elder would need to be brought in acceptable to all and not involved with any of the parties. Dialogue Ireland could not be involved other than in an advisory way as we are not a Christian organisation but one whose mission is related to cultism.

Thomas Francis Cooney in order to show his independence and willingness to help those affected will stand or fall on how he responds to this challenge.