Unmasking Gloriavale to give a voice to the voiceless

Monday, 24 August 2020

Former Gloriavale members tell their stories at the Unmasking Gloriavale fundraiser at Timaru's SBS Events Centre on Thursday evening.

The grandson of Hopeful Christian, the founder of the secretive Gloriavale community, was shocked to discover his grandfather had been convicted of sex offending and jailed.

James Harrison said he and his fellow Gloriavale members were not told of his grandfather’s conviction for sex offending, and subsequent year-long jail sentence in 1995, and instead had been led to believe he had been persecuted for his faith.

Speaking at the Unmasking Gloriavale fundraising event in Timaru, alongside three other former Gloriavale residents, Harrison spoke of finally learning the truth about his grandfather.

He said he was informed of the real reason behind his grandfather’s prison sentence by a former Gloriavale member who had left the sect, which led him to start questioning the legitimacy of other beliefs he held as a result of living in the community.

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Former Gloriavale member James Harrison shares his story with humour as Gloriavale Leavers’ Support Trust general manager and support worker Liz Gregory looks on.

Crystal Loyal speaks to a crowd of 100 about leaving the Gloriavale community.

“Something was not adding up here,” he said.

Harrison said it seemed as if anything less than rape was not regarded as abuse.

Hannah Harrison, who left Gloriavale five years ago, talks about her time there.

As incidents of alleged sexual abuse at the community are being investigated by police and Oranga Tamariki, Harrison and three other former members spoke out about their experiences in the hope of prompting change for those still living there.

The fundraising event was organised by the Gloriavale Leavers’ Support Trust to raise funds to help other families leave the community.

Crystal Loyal, who left Gloriavale three years ago, said that while living in the community she had no concept of her rights or even what constituted abuse. Loyal said any woman who spoke out about abuse in the community would be blamed by its leaders for being at fault.

Melody Pilgrim holds back tears as she answers questions at an Unmasking Gloriavale fundraiser at the SBS Events Centre Lounge in Timaru.

James Harrison’s daughter, Hannah Harrison, has been out of the community for five years and said community members were told not to talk to police about any abuse they endured.

“It is like growing up in a prison – if you never left you would not know it was a prison.

“People have been silent for too long. If they are silent for the next 20 years, nothing will change,” Harrison said.

One hundred ticket holders attended the Unmasking Gloriavale fundraiser on Thursday in Timaru.

Melody Pilgrim had never used a cellphone, eftpos card, and did not know how much she had earned until she left Gloriavale in October last year.

“The first time I looked at a bank account is when I left Gloriavale.”

Former members of Gloriavale Christian Community say people still inside the community do not have the freedom to vote for who they want to in the general election.

The control exercised over about 600 members at the secretive community included being told which jobs they would do, who they were to vote for in the general election (usually National), what to wear, and who they would marry, Pilgrim said.

“We don’t grow up learning to make choices … the system is set up not to give choices,” she said.

The “career” pathways were limited to childcare, sewing, cooking, laundry and cleaning for girls and for the boys it was working on the dairy farm or in one of the other businesses run by the community which included honey production, trophy hunting, health food supplements and sphagnum moss gardening products.

They worked six days a week and had a week-long holiday each year, never seeing or even knowing they earned money. They lived in hostels with communal dining areas and bathrooms, she said.

Pilgrim, at the age of 20, was told by her father that in five minutes she would be proposed to but was not told who the groom-to-be was.

She said she was lucky he was a kind man and he turned out to be a friend of her brother. They married five weeks later. He left the community ahead of her.

“We don’t have a concept of falling in love. Whoever you marry, you decide to love them. You are prepared for the worst.”

The leavers hold a shared fear that Covid-19 would spread rapidly if it got into the community, as government rules were unlikely to be followed, the speakers said.

They raised concerns about the limited healthcare available to their family members and friends still living in the community. Loyal said there was a culture of being tough and continuing to work no matter how sick one was.

“They would not take them to hospital unless they were on their deathbed,” Loyal said.

Pilgrim thought it was important that more of their stories were told so the outside world knew how bad it was and people were encouraged to support leavers into a life of freedom.

Proceeds from the $15 ticket event will go towards helping the families who leave, and the Gloriavale Leavers’ Support Trust which helps resettle them.