A family in New Zealand, with as many as 14 members, recently left their religious commune on West Coast to start a new life after realizing that they did not want to continue living in a false system for the rest of their lives. The family decided to cut their ties with Gloriavale Christian Community, which is based in Haupiri, and moved in with a family in Timaru instead, which is 300 kilometers away. The family said they wanted to be absorbed into the lifestyles of regular people and thanked Timaru for receiving each member with great warmth.
“It's a huge deal for them to stop wearing their community clothes and so they are going to transition slowly,” said Liz Gregory, who has given them shelter in Timaru.
When Gregory made an appeal on her Facebook page to raise funds for her guests, she received an overwhelming response from the local community, who offered to help with furniture, clothes, household goods, toys and books among other things. The Facebook page has since been deleted, as Gregory succeeded in raising the donations she needed to help the former Gloriavale residents settle in.
Chris Hyde, a journalist in Timaru, said about his two visits to Gloriavale that, “The Gloriavale Christian Community is by no means an ideal world, but my limited experiences of it was positive. ... Apart from other interesting aspects of the community, dinners are a communal affair there. Everyone wears standard blue clothing and they generate cash out of a dairy farm and the baskets they produce out of sphagnum moss from Lake Haupiri.”
Australian-born evangelist Neville Cooper, who was invited to preach in New Zealand years ago, set up this religious commune in 1969. Initially known as Springbank Christian Community and located near Christchurch in South Island, as the commune grew larger, its members moved to West Coast over a period of four years. They eventually named their property Gloriavale Christian Community and distanced themselves from Cooper, who was convicted of sexual abuse and spent 11 months in prison.
In 2014, TV2 broadcast a documentary about the religious commune, titled “Gloriavale – A World Apart”, which follows the six-week-long courtship and marriage of a young couple in the religious commune. Reportedly, the community does not allow the use of birth control and it is rather common for married couples to have up to 12 children, sometimes even more.
Photo Credits: Daily Mail
