‘It will definitely destroy it’: Inside Gloriavale’s ‘teenage takeover’
Ex-member Theophila Pratt believes Gloriavale’s teenagers will reshape the sect. With knowledge of the outside world and legal rights, she says the next generation could destroy the community’s way of thinking and living.
Gloriavale is facing a population explosion of teenagers who will rise up and “definitely destroy it”, a former member believes.
Teenagers are now thought to make up more than half of Gloriavale’s 600-strong population.
Theophila Pratt (formerly known as Honey Faithful) said: “Teenagers are taking over the place. These teenagers are going to be the ones who open it up and cause it to fall away.”
Theophila, who escaped Gloriavale 10 years ago, understands there are about 350 teenagers in the religious sect.
She said Gloriavale’s leadership was losing control of them.
“They’re struggling to contain teenagers. The teenagers are seeing people that are leaving, and they know that they have legal rights as New Zealand citizens.”
Theophila is well placed to understand Gloriavale’s teenagers, having rebelled from the age of 16 before escaping at 18. She now works with teenagers as a paediatric occupational therapist in South Auckland.
She said the teenage takeover posed an existential threat to Gloriavale.
“It will definitely destroy it. Children have the power. They’re going to learn new things, and it’s going to destroy the way of living and the way of thinking.”
Gloriavale school closure will speed up ‘teenage takeover’
Theophila spoke to Stuff just before the Secretary for Education announced (on Thursday) that the registration of Gloriavale Christian School would be cancelled because of safety concerns.
Education officials had already placed the school under investigation at the time of our interview, and at that point Theophila said she wanted it closed.
“It’s a huge step, but it needs to happen,” she said in reaction to the registration being cancelled.
She believed the school’s closure would intensify the teenage uprising.
The school had been a way of influencing the thinking of young people, she said. With no school to attend, some Gloriavale teenagers may now get an education outside the community.
“Just from being in [an outside] school, they’re going to learn things like what consent is, what confidentiality is, and what boundaries are in life.”
Teenage population explosion caused by Gloriavale’s big families
The threat of a uprising comes with the sect in turmoil, with former leader Howard Temple sentenced to jail for sex offences last week. He has since been released on bail pending an appeal.
Theophila said Gloriavale’s tradition of having big families had led to the large numbers of teenagers.
“Women in Gloriavale don’t have access to contraception or birth control,” she said, claiming some continued having children even when it posed medical risks.
She said the parents of today’s teenagers were a “sandwich generation”, raised exclusively inside the sect.
Gloriavale was formed in 1969, meaning many older members were born outside the community and had experienced life beyond it.
But she said the next generation – the parents of the teenagers – were born and raised entirely inside Gloriavale, and she worried how they would cope with the community falling away.
“It’s going to be a risk in terms of how parents deal with that change, because that’s all they’ve known. They don’t have anything to go off. It’s like the parents are kids themselves in terms of understanding the outside world and how it runs.”
Theophila said she expected a mass exodus of teenagers.
“There’s going to be a group of teenagers that, similar to me, run and say, ‘This is our opportunity. We can do all the things we dreamed of doing.’”
She said there would be another group that would struggle to fit into the outside world, and she expected major mental health issues.
She also spoke of how leavers feared being judged just because they came from Glorivale.
“[My nephew had] the fear that people on the outside are going to view him as a perpetrator, because men and Gloriavale have that stigma.”
Theophila said the destruction of Gloriavale would be seen in it “falling away”, as there would always be some people who thought it was a good place.
“There’s always going to be a group of people who believe – and will always believe – that Gloriavale is the best place in the world and the only way to live.”
Gloriavale was approached for comment but did not respond.