A Texas megachurch pastor accused of child sexual abuse has resigned from his position as an overseer for the Church of the Highlands.

Gateway Church Senior Pastor Robert Morris “is no longer an overseer of our church,” said a statement released by Highlands trustees, who are non-staff elders of the church.

“We were unaware of this part of his past,” the statement said.

“After being made aware of the disturbing media reports, Highlands trustees and overseers immediately initiated a due diligence process that included reaching out to Gateway’s elders. Before the scheduled follow-up meeting to determine changes in our governance structure, Pastor Morris resigned.”

Morris, whose church in Southlake, Texas is one of the largest churches in the country, has been accused by a woman of sexually abusing her when she was ages 12 to 16.

The Oklahoma woman, now in her 50s, said Morris abused her on multiple occasions in the 1980s.

The alleged abuse, first reported Friday on the religious watchdog blog Wartburg Watch, happened in Oklahoma and Texas between 1982 and 1987. The Christian Post published a story Saturday about the allegations.

Morris, 62, has not been criminally charged, and the statute of limitations for such crimes has passed in both states. Morris did not respond to email and phone messages seeking comment Saturday.

Gateway Church officials on Saturday said they were aware of the allegations but declined to comment when asked by The Dallas Morning News.

In a phone call with The Dallas Morning News on Saturday, Cindy Clemishire, Morris’ accuser, said she met Morris in 1981, when he was a traveling preacher and began preaching at her family’s church. The News does not typically name victims of sexual abuse, but Clemishire has allowed her name to be published.

Clemishire said Morris and his wife and young son became very close with her family. By the time he flew to Tulsa on Christmas Day 1982, he “was like family.” She said Morris stayed at her family’s home, as he was preaching the next morning at their church.

That night, Clemishire said, Morris told her to come to his room because he wanted to talk to her. She said he told her to lay on the bed.

“I remember vividly everything I was wearing and how the pajamas felt. They were light pink, and it was a little top with bloomers, and I had on underwear and bloomers and the little top and a robe that snapped up over the top,” she said.

After they talked for a few minutes, she said Morris began touching her inappropriately. Clemishire said Morris told her not to tell anyone because it would “ruin everything.”

Clemishire said she was 12 when the abuse started.

“I just remember he just wanted to talk,” Clemishire said. “And then he started touching my stomach and proceeded to touch my breast and went under my pants, and then told me I could never tell anyone, because it would ruin everything.”

Clemishire said the abuse continued for roughly four-and-half years, with Morris finding ways to be alone with her, such as trips to the grocery store. She said she came forward about the abuse in March 1987, when she told a family friend, who urged her and went with her to tell her parents. At this time, Morris was a pastor at Shady Grove, a church in Grand Prairie that later became Gateway’s Grand Prairie campus.

Clemishire said her father called the lead pastor at Shady Grove and demanded Morris be removed from the ministry. According to Clemishire, Morris stepped away from the church for two years and entered a “restoration” before coming back in 1989.