Gloriavale founder Hopeful Christian had serious failings but still a positive force, court told: RNZ

By Jean Edwards | RNZ |

Gloriavale founder and convicted sex offender Hopeful Christian was a sinner but was used by God to bring about change, a senior community leader says.

Shepherd Stephen Standfast told the Employment Court it should not have been acceptable for someone with Christian’s criminal record to remain the community’s spiritual leader, but he was not a false prophet.

Hopeful Christian – formerly known as Neville Cooper – was sentenced to five years in prison in December 1995 on three charges of indecent assault for repeatedly inserting a wooden dildo inside a 19-year-old woman.

In one of two Court of Appeal judgments tendered in the Employment Court on Monday, the chief justice noted there were no signs Christian had the capacity to accept responsibility for his offending and to reform.

Standfast, who expects to succeed Howard Temple as Gloriavale’s Overseeing Shepherd, said Christian was a dominant leader but was not beyond change.

“He appears to have been caught up in something that is completely foreign to the scripture and to godliness, but I don’t believe that everything that he was involved in as far as the church and community goes was false, as in false teaching,” he said.

Further reading: Gloriavale founder Hopeful Christian had serious failings but still a positive force, court told