https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/01/soul-survivor-church-of-england-rev-canon-pilavachi/
Victims of a Christian youth festival founder have spoken out for the first time claiming he ran “a cult” in which young men were encouraged to receive full-body massages on his bed and engage in wrestling matches.
The Rev Canon Mike Pilavachi, a 65-year-old charismatic evangelist, founded the Soul Survivor Watford church and its annual summer festivals, which ran from 1993 to 2019, and had an average attendance of 30,000 teenagers from around the world each summer.
At the beginning of April 2023, it emerged that he was stepping back from Church of England ministry amid an ongoing internal investigation and following allegations revealed by The Telegraph detailing how he formed inappropriate intimate relationships with young people.
Now, speaking exclusively to The Telegraph, his alleged victims and former Soul Survivor staff members have come forward to speak out for the first time about how he has “left a trail of broken, young male adults scattered all around the world”.
Furthermore, they claim that Rev Canon Pilavachi’s “toxic behaviour” and “horrible cruelty and obsession” with certain young men was an “open secret” within the organisation, but that nothing was done.
One alleged victim said that “were it not for its affiliation with the Anglican Church, Soul Survivor might fit the definition of a cult or a sect. It operates around the figurehead of Mike – he’s a bit like a cult leader.
“Everyone tries to copy the way he speaks in tongues and has prophetic images. It's all in Mike’s image in many, many ways. People speak and act in a very similar way to Mike and to one another. Those who don’t aren't part of the in-crowd.”
Many of the alleged victims first encountered Rev Canon Pilavachi through his church’s gap-year programme, Soul Time, now known as Soul61. Some became either his official or unofficial interns, and described him as a magnetic and “powerful” man with “a direct dial to God” who could determine their future within the church.
Yet, they also claim that in hindsight that they were part of a “conveyor belt” of young, athletic, attractive men, usually around 18 to 21 from broken homes or with traumatic childhoods who were preyed upon and made to feel “special” by their celibate vicar who they say led them to believe he held the key to their careers, happiness and futures.
Speaking out years later, the whistleblowers told how such young men would often be subject to nicknames, such as: “Pilly boys”, “Mike’s boys”, or “Mike’s favourites” within the upper echelons of the Soul Survivor circles. A number also claim that they were encouraged to receive full-body oil massages in their underwear while being straddled by Rev Canon Pilavachi in his bedroom, as well as vigorous wrestling matches that could last as long as 20 minutes at a time – sometimes in church.
'Psychological torment'They also claim that they suffered psychological torment as he would shower them with attention and promises of a prestigious life in ministry, travelling the world alongside him to exotic destinations on mission trips, or the chance to preach and play music on stage – only to be “ignored”, “dropped”, “gaslit” and “ghosted”.
One alleged victim said he was around 18 or 19 when Rev Canon Pilavachi, who was then in his 40s, told him he was learning massage and needed to practise. He claimed that he then received a full-body oil massage in his underwear while lying on his vicar’s bed.
“I was obviously never going to say no because I had been specially chosen by Mike,” he said. “I didn't want to do anything that would jeopardise our new relationship… I think it’s safe to say the massages went too far up the inner thigh. He was an idol of mine. Who was I to question him? I was like putty in his hands, really.”
Alleged victims also told how Rev Canon Pilavachi would encourage long wrestling matches which made them uncomfortable, but were “normalised by other role models who wrestled with Mike”.
Meanwhile, former staff members claimed that the vicar’s behaviour was well-known within Soul Survivor, with one saying she first became aware around 2003. She recalled one instance in which senior religious leaders “wanted to talk to Mike about optics” regarding his relationships with young men, and another in which he was “being spoken to about needing to make the effort to have more adult relationships”. However, she was not made aware of the outcome of such meetings.