Gloriavale wrote to the Royal Commission of Inquiry during 2022 (Page 17 of the Institutional response) that, “In 2005 changes to the Charities Act prompted an investigation into the nation’s charitable trusts, including the Christian Church Community Trust, which holds most of our assets. The investigation delved into many complaints made by former members who felt that sexual abuse was being covered up and causing a lot of harm to victims.” 

We can’t find evidence of any investigative report prior to 2013.

The first official Charities Services Investigation into Gloriavale was initiated in 2013 when someone (name redacted) requested an investigation into whether Gloriavale met the expectations of providing public benefit given its inward focus. Allegations of sexual misconduct outlined in Phil Cooper’s book ‘Sins of the Father’ were mentioned in this report. Although they found no evidence of wrong-doing in relation to abuse during that investigation. Charities Services did however notes that it was not surprising they didn’t find any evidence as sexual misconduct investigations were not within their ambit.

Read the report here:
Read the report here.

A second Charities Services investigation was initiated in 2015 following a series of media reports and public disclosures from former members of the Christian Church Community Trust. In particular, a television documentary and subsequent national media coverage brought forward allegations of abuse, exploitation, and seriously harmful practices within the community, including concerns about forced labour, family separation, and the treatment of women and children.

This report was completed in 2016 and outlined a range of serious concerns raised during the investigation, including financial management practices, the level of control exercised by leadership, and allegations relating to working conditions, education, and the treatment of members. Evidence gathered included accounts of coercion, unsafe labour practices, and conditions that former members described as exploitative. Importantly, the investigation records consistent accounts from former members describing pressures around leaving the community, limited access to personal resources, and impacts on wellbeing and autonomy.

While Charities Services did not find misuse of charitable funds, it identified ongoing concerns about governance, transparency, and whether aspects of the Trust’s operations were consistent with charitable obligations.

From the report:

8.1. Charities Services considers that the Trustees’ conduct towards members of the Gloriavale Community does not constitute good governance or management and would not promote public trust and confidence in the charitable sector.

8.2. Charities Services also considers that before the current investigation into the operation of the Trust was opened, the Trustees may have acted in a manner that may constitute serious wrongdoing under the Act. This is especially so when it comes to the Trustees responsibilities regarding handling of members wishing to leave the Gloriavale Community, members breaching the rules of the community, handling of allegations of physical and sexual assaults within the community as well as dealings with breaches of the rules of the community.

As a result, Charities Services required changes to governance arrangements and recommended further oversight and safeguards. They did not however even give a formal warning to Gloriavale, instead requesting of them some new policies be submitted showing how they intended to safe-guard children from abuse, how they intended to deal with abusers, and how they would treat people who left the community.

Where concerns fell outside its direct remit, Charities Services referred matters to the appropriate authorities.

• Allegations of potential criminal offending, including physical and sexual abuse, were referred to the New Zealand Police.
• Issues relating to schooling and education within the community were referred to the Ministry of Education.
• Concerns about working conditions, long hours, and labour practices were referred to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).

These referrals formed part of a wider joint-agency approach, ensuring that concerns about abuse, exploitation, and the wellbeing of community members were assessed and addressed by the agencies best placed to respond.

Read the report here:

Leavers were very disappointed with the response, and were increasingly frustrated to see that none of the concerns created change on the ground inside Gloriavale. This led to renewed calls during 2020 for a reinvestigation, which Charity Services denied in August 2020.

Read the report here:

In February 2022, the Employment Court heard evidence that former members may have been employees while working in the community’s businesses from the age of six, not volunteers as Gloriavale had always maintained. GLST wrote to Charities Services the following month, pointing to the ruling and to the wider pattern of oppressive conduct and rights breaches we had documented over years of working with leavers. The GLST requested an immediate investigation be opened into the CCCT Trust. Charities Services declined to reinvestigate, but said it would wait until the judge provided her judgment.

Charities Services opened an investigation in May 2022, after the judge made a finding of forced labour. They would spend the next two years reinvestigating whether Gloriavale was meeting its obligations as a registered charity under the Charities Act 2005.

In April 2025, the Department of Internal Affairs issued a Notice of Intended Decision, telling the Trust it planned to remove the Christian Church Community Trust from the Charities Register and disqualify five trustees from holding governance roles in any charity. Gloriavale was not required to make this public, and it did not. Leavers only learned of the notice much later.

The Trust exercised its right under the Charities Act to object, filing its objection in June 2025. Charities Services then spent two days in September 2025 hearing submissions from Gloriavale’s representatives. Its lawyers accepted that serious wrongdoing had occurred, but argued it was historic and shouldn’t count against the trustees now in place.

The Trust also challenged Charities Services’ composition in the High Court that November, arguing it lacked the five appointed members required to exercise its powers. The Court agreed on that point, but confirmed Charities Services’ earlier decisions, including its notice to the Trust, still stood.

Charities Services kept gathering information well into 2026, including fresh interviews with leavers and current members, before reaching its final decision.

It found the Trust’s funding had supported conduct that was unlawful and harmful to members, and that this met the legal test for serious wrongdoing under the Charities Act. It also noted that the Trust’s activities benefit only the roughly 560 people living inside the Community, so deregistration carries no wider public cost.

Charities Services did give the Trust some credit. It acknowledged a new Trust Deed, independent trustees, an external Chief Executive and new safeguarding policies, and used that to cut the reapplication ban from the five years first proposed down to three.

Decision: the Trust was deregistered from 23 September 2026, registration number CC25088, and cannot reapply for three years. It has two months to lodge an appeal.

Read the decision here:

A separate, supplementary decision deals with individual trustees. Former leader Howard Temple was disqualified from holding an officer role in any charity for five years, the maximum available. The Board decided against disqualifying four other current or former trustees.