The Presbyterian Church of Australia has declared heretical six principal teachings of a cult inside a Melbourne Presbyterian church, and ordered that the church’s findings against the cult be read at every Presbyterian congregation in Australia.

The declaration, to be released today, vindicates the church in its decade-long battle to expel the cult, headed by stockbroker Bruce Teele, that dominates Trinity Presbyterian Church, Camberwell.

Top-level tensions in the Presbyterian church over a cult inside its Camberwell church have deteriorated after the state authority defied a move that would end its attempts to excise the cult. Members of the Victorian assembly on Tuesday expressed outrage at a report from the national church group that in practice exonerates the cult, known as the Fellowship.

The elders of a secretive cult who were expelled from the Presbyterian Church last year have been reinstated by a special meeting of the church’s general assembly. But members of the Victorian assembly, which excommunicated the 15 elders of Trinity Camberwell, were not too downhearted, saying the Fellowship had won the battle but lost the war.

The 15 elders of a Presbyterian Church cult known as the Fellowship who were excommunicated last year have appealed to the church’s highest authority to reinstate them.

An elitist cult has successfully operated as a church within a church - until now.

Congregation members at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Camberwell have been advised to dissociate themselves from a cult-like group to which most of them belong.

Churchgoers were warned yesterday to reject a secretive group operating in their midst.

The Presbyterian Church has excommunicated all 15 elders of one of its largest Melbourne congregations because of their conduct as members of a cult known as the Fellowship.

Summary: The Fellowship aims for spiritual perfection, but its critics say it's distorting the Gospel.

Fractured Families: The Story of a Melbourne Cult, By Morag Zwartz, Parenesis Publishing, $19.95

One particular birthday cake stands out in my childhood memories. It was my 13th birthday and, being a diabetic, I had not enjoyed a birthday cake for years. When I came home from school and found a beautifully decorated cake sitting on the dining room table, my heart skipped a beat with excitement. “Finally, I can feel like a ‘normal’ person for an evening, and have a real birthday cake,” I thought, assuming that someone had found a special recipe for sugarless cake. I can still recall my sinking feeling when the family had gathered, the candles on the cake were burning and, to my horror, someone leaned over and lifted the cake from the plate to reveal a series of books underneath! My family had decorated a cardboard box with icing.

A new book is lifting the lid on The Fellowship, which some clergy want expelled from their church, writes Steve Waldon.

It is almost 20 years since Robert Humphreys' life began to descend into daily torment.