New Zealand’s most notorious fundamentalist cult, Gloriavale Christian Community, has a long history of abuse and manipulation. For nearly 60 years, the isolated religious group has been governed by strict rules, with leaders demanding obedience and exerting control over every aspect of members’ lives.
But once allegations of systemic sexual assault and forced labor started to come to light, the group, which inspired The Handmaid’s Tale, began facing much stricter scrutiny. These crimes and allegations are explored in the new Paramount+ documentary series, Devotion: Obedience or Betrayal, which features exclusive archival footage and extensive interviews with former members.
Here’s what we know about the Gloriavale cult and its controversial history.
What Is Gloriavale Christian Community and Who Founded It?
Gloriavale Christian Community was founded in 1969 by Australian preacher Neville Cooper, also known as Hopeful Christian. Cooper began his career as a traveling evangelist before putting down roots in New Zealand, where he eventually helped found New Life Church in Rangiora.
After a falling-out with church leadership, however, he left to start his own fundamentalist church, originally called The Christ Church. Expanding his following, Cooper acquired a farm in Springbank to build a community he aptly named Springbank Christian Community.
Living a communal and self-sustainable lifestyle, followers worked the farm and built themselves a school, church, and other necessities, making no contact with the outside world. After the reclusive group began to substantially grow in size, Cooper purchased a much larger plot of land and relocated to Haupiri Valley in 1991. It was then he renamed the community Gloriavale in honor of his late wife, Gloria Cooper.
How Did Hopeful Christian Abuse His Followers?
Cooper required followers to shed their individual identities, renouncing their property and assets to the community trust and adhering to a mandatory dress code. At some point, he changed his name to Hopeful Christian, and instructed his hundreds of followers to adopt similar names, like Willing Disciple.
Cooper enforced strict gender roles, requiring women to submit to him and other male leaders known as Shepherds. Under his leadership, Gloriavale members were not allowed to choose who they married; instead Cooper paired people up. He also forced his followers, including children, to work long hours with few breaks and little pay.
In the 1990s, allegations of sexual assault against Cooper and Gloriavale leadership began to surface, leading to a public police investigation.
Was Hopeful Christian Convicted?
Cooper was accused of assaulting five children between the ages of 12 and 17, for which he was convicted of 10 counts of indecent assault in 1994. He was initially sentenced to six years in prison, but after successfully appealing the case, his conviction was overturned and a new trial was ordered.
In 1995, Cooper was found guilty of repeatedly raping a 19-year-old woman with a wooden object under the guise of preparing her for marriage, for which he was convicted of three counts of sexual abuse. He was sentenced to five years in prison, but was released on bail after just 11 months. Despite this, Cooper remained the leader, or “Overseeing Shepherd,” of Gloriavale until his death in 2018. He was 92 years old.
Does Gloriavale Still Exist?
After his death, Cooper was succeeded by Howard Temple. During his tenure, Gloriavale was at the center of multiple forced labor and child exploitation scandals, with courts ruling in 2022 and 2023 that boys as young as 6 were forced to work long hours in hazardous conditions and women and girls were forced to live and work in conditions akin to servitude.
In 2024, former members, known as “leavers”, filed a $2.5 million class action lawsuit against the community’s leaders, alleging they were held in slavery from birth.
Though Gloriavale leadership issued a statement in May 2022 apologizing for failing to “protect victims” of abuse and exploitation and vowing to leave their misdeeds in the past, further scandal ensued just a few years later. In August 2025, Temple, 85, was forced to resign in disgrace after pleading guilty to assaulting several women and girls from 2000 to 2022.
Today, Gloriavale Christian Community is still active, with more than 600 members. Their current Overseeing Shepherd is 49-year-old Stephen Standfast.
How to Watch Devotion: Obedience or Betrayal
Devotion: Obedience or Betrayal explores the history of assault and mistreatment in New Zealand’s secretive religious cult Gloriavale Christian Community. The three-part documentary series is streaming now on Paramount+.
Catherine Caruso joined the Biography.com staff in August 2024, having previously worked as a freelance journalist for several years. She is a graduate of Syracuse University, where she studied English literature. When she’s not working on a new story, you can find her reading, hitting the gym, or watching too much TV.
