Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu – Moving on from Gloriavale

Roimata Tarawa and Leah Menage, with Anna Brankin – Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu – 31/03/2017 “There’s a saying I love,” says Leah Menage. “‘Life is for living, so get a straw and suck it dry.’ To me that means seize every opportunity that you can and never give up.” This message is particularly poignant […]

Gloriavale report: Have we learned nothing from Centrepoint?

By Anke Richter – The Spiinoff – 30/03/2017 For an ex-member of New Zealand’s one and only ‘sex cult’, the parallels between Centrepoint and Gloriavale raise some serious questions about the government’s handling of sexual abuse accusations in religious communities, writes Anke Richter. Three years ago I spent many afternoons on a sofa in Barri […]

Gloriavale: Nine questions we can answer, and one we can’t

By Charlie Gates – Stuff – 29/03/2017 Allegations of sexual assault, physical abuse and coercive treatment have swirled around the Gloriavale religious community for many years. A government investigation into the West Coast religious group, released under the Official Information Act this week, offers insight into the allegations, reveals new details about the closed group, […]

Gloriavale allegations: Read the report

By: Morgan Tait – 28/03/2017 (Updated 29/03/2017) A copy of a 33-page report and a letter sent to the Christian Church Community Trust board detailing the investigation’s findings into the community at Gloriavale have been released to Newsroom under the Official Information Act. The documents supplied by Charities Services – the arm of the Department […]

Gloriavale: BNZ accounts run without members’ knowledge

By: Morgan Tait – 28/03/2017 (Updated 29/03/2017) Senior Gloriavale members may have acted illegally in operating the bank accounts of members without their knowledge – and a government investigation uncovered the activity but did not impose any penalties. The Department of Internal Affairs’ Charities Services investigation did not impose any penalties against the charitable trust […]

Gloriavale: The history of a reclusive sect

By: Morgan Tait – 28/03/2017 (Updated 13/11/2017) Founded by Australian-born evangelist Neville Cooper in 1969, Gloriavale follows its own fundamentalist interpretation of the New Testament. The principles of sharing and holding all things in common are at the centre of the group’s philosophy, as well as strictly abiding by God’s commandments. In the 1980s the […]

Inside Gloriavale: The official story

By Morgan Tait – 28/03/2017 This story was originally published in Newsroom.co.nz and is republished with permission. Allegations of physical and sexual abuse, forced marriage, forced separation of families and a controlling environment at the Gloriavale religious community sparked an 18-month investigation by the New Zealand Government. Now, Newsroom’s Morgan Tait can exclusively reveal what […]