‘Happy, simple’ life at Gloriavale – sociologist: NZ Herald

April 24, 2015: | NZ Herald | Patrice Dougan | Sociologist who visited Christian community saw people treated well and no evidence of subjugation. A sociologist has given a rare glimpse of what life is like on the inside of the secretive Gloriavale Christian Community. Andrew Sepie, of the University of Canterbury, who…

No debate on Gloriavale road closure

April 23, 2015: | NZ Herald | Nicholas McBride | The Grey District Council has refused to enter into a public debate about a plan to close a road near the Gloriavale Christian Community, as the issue heads to the Environment Court. In a statement today, West Coast Fish and Game manager Dean…

The finances of Gloriavale: $36.6m in assets

April 23, 2015: | NZ Herald | Sophie Ryan | Secretive religious community’s profit for year to last July more than $1.86m but it’s a tax-exempt charity. The secretive Gloriavale religious community owns assets worth $36.6 million, including a dairy farm, deer enterprise and an aircraft repair firm. The tax-exempt charity operating as…

NZ Herald – Gloriavale: Woman pleads for family to leave

April 22, 2015: By Parice Dougan, Nicholas McBride – NZ Herald – 22/04/2015 Join me on the outside, the world’s not the evil place you imagine, says former member of community. A young woman who fled the secretive Gloriavale Christian Community has urged the family she left behind to join her in the…

NZ Herald – Gloriavale leaders close in as members talk of leaving

April 22, 2015: NZ Herald – 22/04/2015 A professor who says Gloriavale tried converting him as a boy says the secretive community is feeling “tremors” after the well-publicised departure of several members in recent months. Gloriavale’s leaders want to close a public road near their Haupiri, West Coast compound, claiming community members were…

NZ Herald – Ex-Gloriavale member was victim of ‘wrong relationship’

April 22, 2015: By Patrice Dougan – NZ Herald – 22/04/2015 A young woman who left the secretive Gloriavale Christian Community says she was the victim of a “wrong relationship” with an adult married man when she was just a child. Such relationships were not unheard of during her 19 years living in…

Grey Star / NZ Herald – Gloriavale wants to shut access road

April 21, 2015: By Nicholas McBride – 21/04/2015 The Gloriavale Christian Community wants a public road near its compound closed to prevent attacks from outsiders. The community says the proposed Heaphy Road closure is not aimed at limiting access to hunters, but to prevent vandalism, including spilling of milk and deer being let…

NZ Herald – Gloriavale: ‘Intense’ focus on Hopeful Christian

April 21, 2015: By Patrice Dougan, Sophie Ryan – NZ Herald – 21/04/2015 In a 2015 interview, a banished member says most of Gloriavale community unaware of leader’s past A lecturer in theology at the University of Auckland said many of the core beliefs of Gloriavale were similar to evangelical Christian groups, but…

NZ Herald – Gloriavale: Two couples tell of leaving religious community

April 20, 2015: By Scott Yeoman – NZ Herald – 20/04/2015 Two young couples who quit the Gloriavale Christian Community have revealed what it was like living in the West Coast religious community, and why they left. Rosanna Overcomer and her husband Elijah spoke of the lives they had while under the rule…

Grey Star / NZ Herald – Gloriavale families to tell their story

April 17, 2015: By Laura Mills – 17/04/2015 Two families who defied their Gloriavale leaders to leave will tell their story to the nation on the television news show Sunday. In preview material for this weekend’s show, TVNZ says the families were told the world outside the Gloriavale Christian Community at Lake Haupiri,…