Outsiders not welcome at funeral for Gloriavale founder Hopeful Christian a day after death
Wednesday, 16 May 2018
A funeral for Gloriavale founder Hopeful Christian will be held on Wednesday, but outsiders are not welcome.
Christian, 92, died on Tuesday at the secluded community on the South Island's West Coast after suffering from cancer.
Two cars blocked the entrance to the community on Wednesday morning.
It is understood community members wanted to keep the funeral an internal affair. Outsiders could email condolence messages to the community.
**READ MORE:
* Hopeful Christian dies: What now for Gloriavale?
* Gloriavale: The Hopeful Christian interview
* Inside Gloriavale: The official story
* Stuff Circuit Investigation: False Witness
* Life after Gloriavale**
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.
Jordan Valor was filmed saying all community members are buried in the community plot.
At a funeral in the documentary, Hopeful Christian tells the community all the bodies will one day rise from the graves.
'There will be a shaking down around here and you will see these graves will shake. What will happen? A new body will rise out of these graves. The spirit … will come down into these bodies and suddenly we will be changed. They will come down and we will go up. We will rise. It doesn't matter when we go. It matters where we go,' he said.
John Ready, who left the community late last year but whose wife and nine children still live in the community, said the funeral was happening on Wednesday, but it was 'unlikely' any former members or outsiders would be allowed to attend.
'I'm sure some would want to,' he said.
Ready doubted there would be any 'shock or horror' in the community after Christian's death.
'Old people die. Life moves on. People get born. We are down to earth people. He was quite sick and was given a couple of weeks to live a couple of weeks ago,' he said.
Phil Cooper, who fled Gloriavale 25 years ago and had not seen his father, Christian, in 22 years, told Stuff it would be great to go to his funeral and pay his respects, 'but obviously that's not going to happen'.
He told RNZ News he was unable to attend his mother's funeral: 'We know the heartache that causes, and we'll carry that.'
Gloriavale spokesman Fervent Stedfast said on Tuesday Christian, who held the position of 'Overseeing Shepherd', dedicated 50 years of his life to the Gloriavale community and Jesus.
'He's in heaven now. This [community] is the fruits of his labour,' he said.
Funeral arrangements were 'all in order'.
He would not be drawn on who would replace Christian, though senior member Howard Temple holds the title of 'Overseeing Shepherd's Appointed Successor'.
Christian, a convicted sex offender previously known as Neville Cooper, set up Gloriavale Christian Community – named after his first wife Gloria – in 1969 in North Canterbury.
The community moved to the West Coast in the early 1990s. It sits on the shores of Lake Haupiri, near Greymouth, and has more than 500 members.
Followers grow up in large families (an average of eight children), marry young and must all contribute to the self-sufficient, communal-living lifestyle. In 2016, the community's assets reached more than $40 million.
Christian was thought to have at least 19 children with three wives. He was the sect's leader for more than 40 years before retiring in 2010. He remained an influential figure.
Massey University history professor Peter Lineham told RNZ News Gloriavale's elders likely backed Christian's male-dominated, staunchly traditional approach, but some members might want to have a better relationship with their neighbourhood.
'Perhaps the passing of Hopeful Christian passing will make that easier,' he said.
If the community wanted to be 'a light in a dark world', it needed to change its association with being repressive, violent and nasty towards women, he told RNZ News.