AN INVESTMENT FIRM linked to a religious group has been awarded a contract for housing international protection applicants.
Shalom Living has been contracted to provide accommodation for up to 77 people on a rural estate in Co Waterford.
The small firm is run by Edward Lacey and his wife Mary Lacey, who are recent graduates of Hillsong, an international ‘megachurch’ founded in Australia in the 1980s.
Globally, the church counts celebrities such as Justin Bieber among its 150,000-strong membership.
The government has struggled to find accommodation for refugees and asylum seekers who have come to Ireland over the past 18 months, with up to 80,000 people housed at present. In Waterford, a range of vacant commercial buildings have been converted to house hundreds of refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine.
International protection applicants are people seeking refuge in Ireland for other reasons, including war and discrimination in their homeland.
There has been a marked increase in recent years in investment companies seeking to invest in more ethical areas than in the past, including areas of social interest and climate.
When contacted, Edward Lacey told The Journal that the investment firm had began providing accommodation as it matched with the company’s ethos.
The couple emphasise a desire on the website for “ethical business, social justice, and our collective corporate responsibility to see an end to poverty” on the Shalom Living website. The company is named after the Hebrew word for peace and harmony.
“It’s both business and it’s a good thing to do,” Lacey said when asked by The Journal why the company had gotten involved in the sector.
He said information listed on the firm’s website about the couple’s links with Hillsong are “personal background” information and said that the church has “nothing to do with the company”.
“Any more information you may need you’re going to have to contact the department,” he told The Journal on Thursday.
Since Friday, Shalom Living’s website has been down and no longer accessible.
The news that 77 international protection applicants in Waterford would be housed in Shalom Living’s residence in the rural location in Co Waterford in Ballynevin, near Carrick-on-Suir, was contained in a briefing note circulated to local public representatives from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. The department has responsibility to accommodate people seeking refuge in Ireland.
The department did not respond to The Journal following a number of requests.
Both Edward and Mary studied and trained at Hillsong. Edward, who is from nearby Carrick-on-Suir, graduated from Hillsong in 2019 and Mary studied pastoral leadership at Hillsong College in 2016, winning an award for exemplary achievement.
The estate, now known as Shalom Guest House, was previously owned by legendary cyclist Sean Kelly. Kelly put the property up for sale two years ago and it went to market for €980,000.
Edward Lacey purchased the property. It sold for €850,000 in August 2022 according to the Property Price Register.
Lacey’s company’s website states that he qualified from an accounting and finance course in University of Limerick, before interning with PwC. The 30 year old later went on to work with EY Luxembourg and Glencore, a trading and multicommodity company in Switzerland.
“Having worked in over 15 countries worldwide, he has gained an in-depth appreciation for diverse people groups and charitable causes,” the website reads. “Following the success of real estate projects in Ireland and Switzerland, Edward established Shalom Living and now oversees the company’s operations and investment pipeline.”
His wife Mary (39) trained as a radiographer at Kings College Hospital in London and began studying pastoral leadership at Hillsong College in 2016, where “she served as Head Student” according to the couple’s website.
In 2018, she received the “Outstanding Graduate Award for Exemplary Achievement and Leadership” from Hillsong.
They also list out several charitable projects they have partnered with, including Dublin-based drug treatment group Merchants Quay Ireland. Other groups include KitePride, an NGO working with victims of human trafficking, which Mary Lacey volunteered with during a stint in Tel Aviv, Israel.
The Hillsong church has been the subject of a recent Disney Plus documentary concerning troubles in the church’s branches in the US and Australia.
The documentary, which describes Hillsong as being “rooted in old school Pentecostalism”, a form of Christian evangelicalism, outlines allegations that the church does not allow gay people take on any leadership role.
Brian Houston, who founded the church in Australia in the 1980s, outlined the stance in a 2015 statement after it emerged that a male choir director was in a relationship with another man.
Houston said at the time that the church does “not knowingly have actively gay people in positions of leadership, either paid or unpaid”.
“That said, we still love them and acknowledge that they – like all of us – are on a journey, and our role as a church is to assist them on this journey with grace and compassion.”
Houston’s own role in the church is in doubt as he awaits the verdict of an Australian court on whether he concealed sexual abuse of a child by his pastor father.
He was accused of being aware of the abuse in the 1990s but pleaded not guilty at trial in Sydney. A verdict is expected next month.
Houston stepped away from leading the church last year in light of the accusation.
Throughout the Disney Plus documentary, the church denied any criminal wrongdoing in relation to the specific claims made.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say