Stuff: Gloriavale newlyweds sent to consummate arranged marriage as everyone waits ‘so they can have lunch’

By Joanne Naish – Stuff – 10/09/2022

Touching your fiancé is forbidden at the Gloriavale Christian Community, but you are expected to consummate the arranged marriage before lunch.

Melody Pilgrim remembers sitting in a room waiting to find out who the Overseeing Shepherd had chosen for her.

“I was sitting there scared and shaking, I didn’t know who was going to walk in.

“The room was set up nicely with flowers and in walked this young man with a bunch of flowers. He knelt down and said he would be honoured if I became his wife,” she said.

Read more here: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/129818702/gloriavale-newlyweds-sent-to-consummate-arranged-marriage-as-everyone-waits-so-they-can-have-lunch