: By Julie Fenwick | VICE | “You’re reared in those thoughts where it’s like ‘I owe the system something’… ‘Actually: I owe them my life’.” In Haupiri, on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island, live close to 600 people, crammed in bunk beds and shared living quarters with little…
: By Sarah Steele – Let’s Talk About Sects – 19/10/2022 When widespread abuse is uncovered at a New Zealand cult, a family must turn to the legal system in an effort to save themselves and their community from the all-powerful leaders. Filmmakers Noel Smyth and Fergus Grady documented the impact…
: RN Drive, ABC, Sky Kirkham, Producer – 17/10/2022 Founded in New Zealand at the end of the 1960s by an Australian preacher, the Gloriavale Christian Community is home to around 600 people. Led by a small group of ‘shepherds’, members are isolated from outside society and ex-communication means exile from…
: By Joanne Naish and Katie Doyle | Stuff | The leader of Gloriavale has vowed that there will be “no more abuse” at the secretive West Coast Christian community but denied that its doctrines had allowed it to flourish in the past. Gloriavale’s overseeing shepherd, Howard Temple, has been answering…
: By Jayden Holmes | Today FM | The head of Gloriavale has admitted abuse happened at the religious community. Howard Temple is making a rare public appearance at the inquiry into abuse in care and faith-based institutions. He was questioned about an incident where a man was accused of sexual…
: A chance meeting with a former resident of Bert Potter’s Centrepoint community started journalist Anke Richter on what became a decade-long deep dive into groups that exert high levels of control on members. The result of her investigation is a book, Cult Trip: Inside the world of coercion and control exploring a myriad of…
: RNZ – 1/09/2022 A former Gloriavale woman says the Christian community’s leaders thought they were above the law. The Employment Court has been hearing evidence from leavers who claim they were working in slave-like conditions and exposed to sexual harassment and abuse from a young age. Read more here: https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018857067/gloriavale-leaders-thought-they-were-above-law-ex-member…
: RNZ – 31/08/2022 A court has heard distressing testimony from a former Gloriavale woman who says her treatment at the secretive Christian community made her suicidal. The Employment Court has also heard evidence girls as young as eight were worried about being groped while serving food. Read more here: https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018856906/court-hears-distressing-accounts-from-ex-gloriavale-women…
: RNZ – 30/08/2022 A court has been told victim blaming and shaming was standard at Gloriavale, where girls caught in inappropriate relationships with married men were called ‘whores’. Six former Gloriavale women want the Employment Court to rule they were employees, not volunteers, during their time at the West Coast…