Hosea Courage spoke to 1News as the Employment Court made a new ruling that could pave the way to compensation for former residents.

He joined Daniel Pilgrim and Levi Courage in taking legal action to create change where he grew up. Read more

Fairy tales, books that celebrate Christmas and children's stories depicting animals dressed in clothes, were all among those cautioned against, by a senior leader checking the community's reading material.

In an email sent to members last month and obtained by RNZ, Servant Peter Righteous said he personally preferred writers who taught "total submission and obedience to the gospel" and binned a book "infected with feminist propaganda".

"In the last couple of weeks I've been asked to comment on books that have come into the community, or may be coming in, mainly in the realm of homeschooling resources. I was disappointed to find books celebrating Christmas on our shelves, and others that were simply worldly," he wrote. Read more

The previously undisclosed and ongoing investigation, dubbed Operation Mathius, began in 2021, and followed another investigation that brought to light offending involving 60 people at the West Coast fundamentalist Christian community.

Operation Mathius was launched after an array of serious allegations surfaced about two Gloriavale men, Timothy Disciple and Jonathan Benjamin. Read more

Two Court of Appeal judgments tendered in a case brought by six former Gloriavale women describe how Christian was said to have used his dominance to sexually exploit young followers and had no capacity to accept responsibility for his offending and reform.

Christian - formerly known as Neville Cooper - was sentenced to five years in prison in December 1995, on three charges of indecent assault for inserting a wooden dildo inside a 19-year-old woman over three successive days. Read more

This is a U-turn from its past anti-vaccination stance.

The community has previously blocked the West Coast from hitting immunisation targets as its babies are not given vaccines. The community has a population of about 500 and about 35 births a year.

The West Coast District Health Board (DHB) traditionally had the lowest baby immunisation rate in the country, with about one in five local caregivers declining to immunise their babies or opting out of placing their baby on the National Immunisation Register. Read more

However, the Government's workplace safety watchdog ruled the incidents did not meet the "minimum threshold for formal investigation."

It comes after reports some members of the West Coast Christian community were forced to work more than 20 hours a day - a claim WorkSafe did look into in September, but found no evidence to support the reports after speaking with 13 workers. Read more

It is also going to be carrying out a separate inquiry into Marylands a residential school for boys, many with learning disabilities.

But other investigations into faith-based institutions are also going to be set up, as the inquiry progresses a spokesperson for the commission says.

The commission is now looking into Gloriavale, a closed religious community located on the West Coast with the possibility of an investigation into the community.

It comes amid revelations Gloriavale leaders forced a 13-year-old girl to sit in a room with a man who allegedly groomed her because their versions of events did not match up.

The family left Gloriavale about ten months ago as they felt the community was making the 13-year-old's life "miserable."

They had lived there for 40 years.

A police spokesperson said police were notified in June 2018 about an alleged indecent incident involving a young person six weeks earlier.

Police immediately launched an investigation, which included speaking to the young person, their parents, potential witnesses and the alleged offender.

"A resolution was reached that took into account the views of the victim and their family at the time, and addressed the safety of the young person concerned," the spokesperson said.

At an Unmasking Gloriavale fundraiser held in Timaru, last Thursday former members of the community spoke out about their experiences in the hope of prompting change for those still living there.

The fundraising event was organised by the Gloriavale Leavers' Support Trust to raise funds to help other families leave the community.

The grandson of Hopeful Christian, the founder of the Gloriavale community, was shocked to discover his grandfather had been convicted of sex offending and jailed.

He had been told Hopeful Christian had been persecuted for his faith.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• Image: metronews.co.nz

Those close to the exclusive, controlling Christian community 67km east of Greymouth told the Gloriavale Leavers' Support Trust the rules were being ignored.

Police said they were working with the Gloriavale community to make sure its members followed the lockdown restrictions. Read more

Liz Gregory says it's now time to set up a trust to help support those who had made the "massive" decision to leave the community of about 500 members. Read more

Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones says he didn't expect communes to put in for a share of the provincial growth fund but Gloriavale's application has shown anyone can try.

Gloriavale is a closed fundamentalist Christian group based at Haupiri on the West Coast of the South Island in New Zealand.

The Provincial Growth Fund is a 3 billion dollar treasure chest the New Zealand Government has created to promote regional growth.

Jones said the application would be considered professionally like any other but that did not mean it would see the "fiscal light of day."

"I wouldn't want to knock out any particular application till we had all the facts.

"But the reality is that particular organisation does represent something of a morality play," Jones said.

The Opposition National Party's economic development spokesman Paul Goldsmith said it's not clear to him "how New Zealand benefits from giving money to a closed community."

Massey University Professor Peter Lineham said Gloriavale have "set themselves up on the Coast as a curious little isolated place that wants to have nothing to do with the world.

"Well, then what are they doing asking for the world's money? That's what I'd like to know."

"Gloriavale comes with a whole lot of baggage. And the Government cannot be comfortable," Lineham said.

Gloriavale's spokesman declined to comment about the application to the Provincial Growth Fund when contacted by 1 NEWS.

Source

• tvnz.co.nz
• radionz.co.nz
• Image: Stuff

He had been suffering from cancer.

Cooper's funeral took place on Wednesday, but outsiders were not allowed to attend.

They were able to email condolence messages to the community.

Two cars blocked the entrance to the community on Wednesday morning.

It is understood community members wanted to keep the funeral an internal affair.

According to the 2015 TVNZ documentary "Gloriavale: Life and Death," when someone dies at Gloriavale no one calls a funeral director.

"They can handle everything themselves. Noah Hopeful gets cracking on the coffin," the narrator said.

Bodies are washed and dressed by family members and placed in a spare chiller. There is no embalming and the coffins are simple and made of MDF.

They are spray-painted white, with some poetry on top.

Hopeful Christian...born Neville Cooper, was the sect's leader for more than 40 years before retiring in 2010.

He remained an influential figure, holding the position of "Overseeing Shepherd."

Cooper came to New Zealand from Australia in 1967.

He set himself up as a Christian preacher and spoke around the country, but he quickly fell out of favour with mainstream religious groups because of his fundamentalist preachings.

He changed his name to Hopeful Christian sometime after setting up Gloriavale Christian Community - named after his first wife Gloria - in 1969 in North Canterbury.

The community, which has about 600 members, moved to the West Coast in the early 1990s. It now sits on the shores of Lake Haupiri, a remote part of the West Coast.

Christian was thought to have at least 19 children with three different wives.

The trust owns land worth about $10 million along with buildings, vehicles and equipment worth about $20 million.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• Image: tvnz.co.nz

Religious groups are undertaking night-time raids to drop off material that presents a different view of God.

Read more

The document allegedly included clauses that stopped members from speaking about the community to outsiders and others that prohibited any legal action, TVNZ reported. Continue reading

He thought the documentary aire late last month A Woman's Place, which aired in late July, "accurately portrayed" parts of the community, but did not ask the hard questions.

He said good and bad things and people existed in all communities, but the bad seemed to be the focus of many of the Gloriavale documentaries and media coverage.

Seventeen months after leaving Gloriavale South Canterbury dairy farmer James Ben Canaan gave his first face-to-face interview on Wednesday.

Canaan admitted he had been reluctant to speak out for fear of his experience being wrongfully portrayed.

However, he changed his mind in the hope sharing his story might help New Zealanders understand the "real" Gloriavale.

While he was concerned the community had been portrayed incorrectly about abuse he was disappointed the past sexual abuse allegations were not discussed.

He said child abuse was not condoned in Gloriavale at all. Howver he was disappointed the documentary did not ask questions about why the community was not informed that Gloriavale leader Hopeful Christian, was convicted of indecent assault in the mid 1990s.

"99 per cent of Gloriavale members believe those things never happened", he said.

"If the people of Gloriavale knew the truth about the allegations, the place would fall apart,"

The leaders held up on a pedestal with high regard "would fall to pieces".

"There were other sides of life that weren't touched".

A lot of the members were happy with life, but he knew of people "who aren't happy there, too".

However, this perspective would not come out as people who were unhappy would not be interviewed, he said.

"Everything done is put past the leaders for approval."

But there were a lot of good things in the community, he said.

"Gloriavale is a very stress-free life. Everything is well organised and everyone looks after each other. "

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• Image: stuff.co.nz

Wednesday night's instalment, provocatively subtitled A Woman's Place, presented a particularly rose-tinted view of life inside Gloriavale. It focused on two women: unmarried 22-year-old Dove Love and Angel Benjamin, a married woman in her late twenties who was expecting her sixth child. Continue reading

The doco-series follows the young residents living in an exclusive Christian community on New Zealand's West Coast, as they prepare for marriage, parenthood and life at Gloriavale.

Gloriavale aired during the 8.30pm timeslot on TV2, with last night's numbers securing the show's place as TV2's most-watched show to date this year. Read more

The Education Review Office was called before the Education and Science Select Committee today to explain why the extreme fundamentalist school was allowed to teach separate subjects for girls and boys, and stop education early.

Green MP Catherine Delahunty was hoping for an investigation into the isolated community's school, saying it was breaching the rights of children to a broad education, however it was decided against. Continue reading

Gloriavale could lose its funding because it is opposed to identification numbers for preschoolers.

"Gloriavale ... disagree with the use of a student number for their children," said Katrina Casey, the ministry's head of sector enablement and support.

"We visited them last year and most recently last month to discuss their concerns."

Gloriavale spokesman Fervent Stedfast, when asked if the 530 strong community objected to using national student numbers, had no comment to make.

Nationwide, most children in early childhood education (ECE) have been assigned a national student number under a new government project.

The ministry says the numbers are necessary as they give it an accurate picture of enrolment, attendance and teaching at ECE centres.

The Education Review Office (ERO) in June awarded Gloriavale's three "Garden of Children" early childhood centres the highest grade of being "very well placed".

Source

• www.nzherald.co.nz
• Image: whaleoil.co.nz

Last Monday, a Facebook post circulated with details of the family's plight, asking people for donations of housing, food, money, clothes, household items and a vehicle.

The Facebook page has since been deleted.

"This family came to believe that they were in a false system and have left 500 of their family and friends (the only ones they've ever known). Hugely courageous. . . they are very excited about starting life out here."

"They are feeling blessed - but are aware of the road ahead of them," Timaru woman Liz Gregory wrote online.

The family of two adults and 12 children, known on Facebook as the Ben Canaan family, are staying with Gregory and her husband Graham.

The Gloriavale organisation has attracted controversy through the notoriety of its leader, Neville Cooper (known as Hopeful Christian), who was convicted of sexual assault in 1994.

Cooper was jailed for almost a year, and convicted on the testimony of his son and some young women who had fled the compound.

Located 3km south of Lake Haupiri on the West Coast, Gloriavale was set up in 1990 when its members relocated from Springbank Christian Community in North Canterbury.

The community of around 500 members operate a number of businesses on their large land holding surrounding their base.

Source

• Stuff.co.nz
• NZ Herald.co.nz
• Image: Stuff.co.nz

Ocean Harvest International Ltd (OHIL) is planning the new well on the Niagara structure near Greymouth.

Gloriavale's geological consultant, Murry Cave, said oil had been discovered there in the past but the well was close to oil-water contact so could not be put into production. Continue reading