Dark side of Gloriavale 'needs to be brought to the light', long-term resident says

Wednesday, 23 February 2022

The isolated West Coast Christian community of Gloriavale has set itself apart from the rest of society for more than 50 years.

Forty of Sharon Ready’s 71 grandchildren still live in the isolated West Coast Christian community of Gloriavale.

Ready still calls it home herself, and has since its inception in North Canterbury, in 1969. But now she has tearfully spoken out against it at an Employment Court hearing, saying the plaintiffs, one of them her own grandson, have been robbed of choice.

“I believe it is my duty as a Christian, to stand up to what has become evil.”

A group of leavers lodged the case against the attorney-general and the community’s leaders. The hearing, before Chief Judge Christina Inglis, is taking place this week, and will decide whether Gloriavale members are employees or volunteers.

John Ready, a father of 10 who spent most of his life in the community before he was expelled, and his mother, Sharon Ready.

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The decision will affect both those currently and previously living at Gloriavale regarding their working conditions, pay and employment rights.

Sharon Ready still calls Gloriavale home, but has spoken out against the isolated community at an Employment Court hearing.

Ready, now 65, was brought by her mother to the Springbank Christian Community when she was aged 15.

When she first arrived, she told the court every family had their own home, money, possessions, and vehicles.

Parents looked after their own children, and the children went to local schools.

In 1988, Ready and her husband signed the first copy of Gloriavale’s ‘What We Believe’, and its commitment.

They went to a meeting with community leaders, but she did not get time to read it in full, however she understood it gave the newly-dubbed Overseeing Shepherd control of the community’s finances, and her young family would be looked after in an open, Christian society.

Sharon Ready and her daughter Prayer Ready, who died aged 14 at Gloriavale (file photo).

There was no suggestion of independent legal advice at any time, she said, a trend that continued over the years.

Leaders would “simply turn up with the documents, ask us to sign, and we would”.

“I never felt I ever had a free choice when documents were put in front of me.”

After signing something new, nothing changed, but Ready said a notable exception was when she was asked to become a teacher, and was earning money from the Government.

She was called to a meeting and asked to sign papers to open her own bank account, she said, then another document giving control of it to the shepherds.

“I realised I did not know what they had been doing with our property, our land, our assets… but they were supposed to belong to the people.”

She had chosen to speak out after “a lot of thought and prayer”.

Former Gloriavale man Faithful Disciple gives evidence at the Employment Group hearing.

Her grandchild, plaintiff Hosea Courage, had no choice about his occupation, she said. It had all been up to the Overseeing Shepherd, and those he had appointed as leaders.

“When you have… families torn apart in the name of God in a Christian community, then I believe something is very wrong. Is this the way Jesus would want it to be?

“There is a dark side hidden in this community, which needs to be brought to the light.”

Much of Wednesday’s testimony was focused on Gloriavale’s leadership structure, in particular, the power held by Overseeing Shepherd Howard Temple, who took up the mantle after founder Hopeful Christian’s death.

Faithful Disciple left with his wife and children in March 2021.

29062012 NEWS Photo:SUPPLIED Screengrabs from Christchurch filmmaker Cody Packer's documentary on a reclusive West Coast religious community, Gloriavale, which will be shown at the Chicago International Film Festival in October.

He was born into the community, and most recently had worked at Value Proteins, a rendering company producing bone-meal products.

Disciple said young workers were pressured to sign the commitment by the time they turned 18, before they were able to marry or get a driver’s licence.

“You have no access to money, you’re never paid a wage … You’re basically working for your board and keep.”

His family tried to leave in 2015, he said, but were discovered. They were convinced to stay, and Disciple was assigned a new farm job he believed was punishment.

The job’s isolation caused him to become depressed, so he was moved to the meal plant, where “the mad, the bad, and the sad” were sent.

“To me, going to work at the meal plant felt like a life-sentence at a penitentiary.

“It was noisy, smelly, hot work, and was repetitive.”

This was not the only punishment Disciple said he faced during his time at Gloriavale, also sitting through 20 disciplinary sessions with shepherds.

This involved being taken into a meeting and, “harangued, shamed, and put under severe mental stress to get you to submit to their will”.

He described Gloriavale as “a brutal control regime”, with members conditioned to follow the shepherds’ authority from a young age, by a combination of public humiliation, withholding food, and, in the past, physical punishment.

Former Gloriavale man John Ready, Sharon Ready's oldest son, gives evidence to the court.

Disciple said leaving did not feel like an option.

“You have never had a choice before, and you’re told the other choice is certain damnation… you don’t have any pocket money stashed up..

Former Gloriavale members protest outside the Press Leaders debate before the 2020 election in a bid to see changes in the way the religious community is run.

“I made that choice [to stay], but I believe it was under duress.”

After he did leave, Disciple said he was “elated” to finally receive his first pay packet at age 35.

“I and a lot of others did not choose to join Gloriavale, we were born into it.

“When Government departments say we are not employees, they are sentencing us to a life of servitude.”

John Ready, a father of 10 who also spent most of his life in the community, worked as a farm manager before he was expelled.

“From my observation it is not a charitable trust structure, not a company structure, it is a religious structure, pure and simple.”

The Overseeing Shepherd was like an “emperor”, he said, and members were taught he was the “right hand of God”.

Even as a manager, he only had authority over day-to-day matters, he said, and requests for things like buying safety gear for workers were turned down.

Ready said he never filled in the full hours his staff worked on the books, because it was understood in the community if you clocked too many hours you would “cop heat”.

“Those who do not submit, obey, or [who] challenge the Overseeing Shepherd were disciplined, often brutally.”

Lawyer for Gloriavale leaders, Scott Wilson, said with just eight shepherds, including the Overseeing Shepherd, and eight servants, it was simply not feasible for them to have absolute control over every single person in a 600-strong community.

Statements used by witnesses, he said, like “if you don’t work, you don’t eat”, were biblical quotes taken out of context, and related to Gloriavale being a self-sufficient society.

Wilson questioned whether John Ready’s opinions were coloured by enmity he felt towards the community, and said Gloriavale had fully cooperation with labour inspectorate – which was inconsistent with a community trying to conceal matters.

The hearing will continue on Thursday.