Two Court of Appeal judgments tendered in a case brought by six former Gloriavale women describe how Christian was said to have used his dominance to sexually exploit young followers and had no capacity to accept responsibility for his offending and reform.

Christian - formerly known as Neville Cooper - was sentenced to five years in prison in December 1995, on three charges of indecent assault for inserting a wooden dildo inside a 19-year-old woman over three successive days. Read more

He had been suffering from cancer.

Cooper's funeral took place on Wednesday, but outsiders were not allowed to attend.

They were able to email condolence messages to the community.

Two cars blocked the entrance to the community on Wednesday morning.

It is understood community members wanted to keep the funeral an internal affair.

According to the 2015 TVNZ documentary "Gloriavale: Life and Death," when someone dies at Gloriavale no one calls a funeral director.

"They can handle everything themselves. Noah Hopeful gets cracking on the coffin," the narrator said.

Bodies are washed and dressed by family members and placed in a spare chiller. There is no embalming and the coffins are simple and made of MDF.

They are spray-painted white, with some poetry on top.

Hopeful Christian...born Neville Cooper, was the sect's leader for more than 40 years before retiring in 2010.

He remained an influential figure, holding the position of "Overseeing Shepherd."

Cooper came to New Zealand from Australia in 1967.

He set himself up as a Christian preacher and spoke around the country, but he quickly fell out of favour with mainstream religious groups because of his fundamentalist preachings.

He changed his name to Hopeful Christian sometime after setting up Gloriavale Christian Community - named after his first wife Gloria - in 1969 in North Canterbury.

The community, which has about 600 members, moved to the West Coast in the early 1990s. It now sits on the shores of Lake Haupiri, a remote part of the West Coast.

Christian was thought to have at least 19 children with three different wives.

The trust owns land worth about $10 million along with buildings, vehicles and equipment worth about $20 million.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• Image: tvnz.co.nz

Last Monday, a Facebook post circulated with details of the family's plight, asking people for donations of housing, food, money, clothes, household items and a vehicle.

The Facebook page has since been deleted.

"This family came to believe that they were in a false system and have left 500 of their family and friends (the only ones they've ever known). Hugely courageous. . . they are very excited about starting life out here."

"They are feeling blessed - but are aware of the road ahead of them," Timaru woman Liz Gregory wrote online.

The family of two adults and 12 children, known on Facebook as the Ben Canaan family, are staying with Gregory and her husband Graham.

The Gloriavale organisation has attracted controversy through the notoriety of its leader, Neville Cooper (known as Hopeful Christian), who was convicted of sexual assault in 1994.

Cooper was jailed for almost a year, and convicted on the testimony of his son and some young women who had fled the compound.

Located 3km south of Lake Haupiri on the West Coast, Gloriavale was set up in 1990 when its members relocated from Springbank Christian Community in North Canterbury.

The community of around 500 members operate a number of businesses on their large land holding surrounding their base.

Source

• Stuff.co.nz
• NZ Herald.co.nz
• Image: Stuff.co.nz

The group, now numbering over 400, lives communally on the shores of Lake Haupiri, inland from Nelson Creek.

Despite growth at the commune, the overall vaccination rate on the West Coast fell to 79 per cent for eight-month-old babies in the last quarter, the worst figure in the country.

Ministry of Health chief adviser, child and youth health, Pat Tuohy said the ministry was aware of the high decline (opt out) rates on the West Coast and was working with the West Coast District Health Board to help it achieve the immunisation health target.

"There are similar communities throughout New Zealand so it would be unfair to single out the West Coast in terms of removing them from the DHB's statistical denominator," he said.

Gloriavale Christian Community is a small Christian group based at Haupiri on the West Coast of the South Island in New Zealand.

The group was founded in 1969 by Neville Cooper (Hopeful Christian), an Australian-born evangelist who was invited to preach in New Zealand. He founded what became known as the Springbank Christian Community near Christchurch in the South Island. When this community grew too big for its property, the members bought land on the West Coast and shifted there over a period from 1991 to 1995. They named their new property in the Haupiri Valley "Gloriavale" and established the Gloriavale Christian Community. This property is about 60 km inland from Greymouth.

In 1994 Cooper was jailed for five years for sexual assault on several young girls, boys and women. He was released after 18 months.

Known by some outsiders as the "Cooperites", the group rejects this name and members refer to themselves only as Christians. Members of the community live a fundamentalist Christian life in accordance with the teachings of the New Testament. The community attempts to uphold the example of the first Christian church in Jerusalem (Acts 2:41-47) for its principles of sharing and holding all things in common. The group teaches that the only true way to salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ and obedience to the commands of God.[3]

The community earns its income from several ventures including dairying and the manufacture of gardening products made from sphagnum moss.

Source

• The Greymouth Star
• Wikipedia
• Image: westpointtales.blogspot.co.nz