Gloriavale's top leader promises 'no more abuse' at the West Coast cult
Thursday, 13 October 2022
The leader of Gloriavale has vowed that there will be “no more abuse” at the secretive West Coast Christian community but denied that its doctrines had allowed it to flourish in the past.
Gloriavale’s overseeing shepherd, Howard Temple, has been answering questions at the Royal Commission of Inquiry into abuse in faith-based care about how the leaders dealt with sexual abuse of children.
On Thursday, Temple said a policy at the community, as written in its document What We Believe in 1989, prevented members from reporting crimes to anyone outside the community. The policy was changed in 2017 and the document rewritten this year, he said.
The inquiry heard evidence about a child sex offender who apologised and was forgiven by the Gloriavale community for his actions – but was only exiled by the leaders after police got involved when he offended again.
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Temple said the girl said the man had touched her and he denied it.
“I suppose you could call it sexual abuse. He said his intentions were wrong but nothing ever happened, and under the circumstances I could agree with him nothing happened in that situation physically.”
The man stood up and spoke to the whole community to repent and the group forgave him, Temple said.
He was “put aside” out of the community for a short time before returning and offending again.
“Police came in on that one. They put a safety plan on him that is still on him that he's not to come back to the community.”
It was only later that he realised what impact the community’s response would have had on the victim, he said.
He said the leaders investigated complaints in a “more casual” way, but once police began investigating they uncovered a scale of abuse that was “never imagined”.
Temple said he was unaware of sexual abuse in the community, but had seen physical abuse of children.
Kathy Basire, a lawyer assisting the commission, put statements from former members to Temple about children being severely beaten by parents and teachers as punishment.
She read one survivor’s statement which talked about leaders telling mothers to cover babies’ mouths and noses until their children struggled to breathe and turn blue because community founder Hopeful Christian hated the sound of babies crying.
Basire asked him if doctrines in place at Gloriavale designed to control and silence people allowed abuse to occur and continue.
She said the policies included members being forbidden to report crimes, communicate with anyone outside the community, leave without permission from the leaders, and that all Christians needed to speak in unity.
“No, I don't believe that,” Temple said in response to questions about Gloriavale’s practices allowing abuse to flourish. “I'm looking at our way of life. I don't believe that’s the cause of it,” Temple said.
She questioned whether Temple knew of sexual abuse in the community before Christian went to prison for four years in 1995 for sexual offending.
Temple said he did not question the policy of not reporting matters to police after Christian was jailed and said Corrections did not object to Christian returning to the isolated community and resuming his leadership during his parole.
He agreed the policy of not allowing members to leave the community was about total control, but said it was more about communication and not hiding anything from the leaders.
He said the policy of women not being allowed to speak in church and having to obey their husbands was written in scripture.
However, he agreed the policy would discourage children and vulnerable young people from raising issues of sexual abuse to the leaders.
Basire said a police investigation that began in 2020 revealed 61 young people were involved in harmful sexual behaviour, which often involved up to four people, and 20% more than five people.The most serious offending involved 27 victims, she said.
She said the abuse was intergenerational, with parents struggling to support their abused children because they were abused themselves.
She asked Temple about allegations that Christian would talk about his sexual exploits during dinner time and that it was a requirement for him to be present in the room when married couples consummated the marriage.
If he could not make it he would make the couple record the act so he could review it later, she said. Temple said he never saw or heard of these allegations.
He said the community could not afford a redress and compensation package for survivors but the leaders had changed the policies so victims were always listened to and to ensure any allegations were reported to police immediately.
“There will be no more abuse in Gloriavale,” he said.
In further evidence, Gloriavale School's acting principal Rachel Stedfast – the granddaughter of Hopeful Christian – said te reo Māori and some tikanga (practices) are taught in the schools.
But Basire said a Gloriavale school policy document from 2021 said the community rejected Māori and English cultures.
One witness told the commission that she was told Māori were vile heathens, thieves and were lazy, and te reo was 'Satan's language'.
On Thursday morning a former Gloriavale member held back tears as she appeared before the commission.
Rosanna Overcomer criticised what she described as a dreadful lack of care from Government agencies in the past.
“What was not dealt with appropriately went on to become the culture I was raised in,” she said.
“When people in positions of power have no accountability they create a path of hurt and destruction.”
Overcomer described the neglect she said members of Gloriavale faced and was scathing of how leaders had handled past allegations of abuse.
She questioned whether agencies had willingly turned a blind eye to well-known problems at Gloriavale, or if the religious community had been put in the “too hard” basket.
Members of the public gallery clapped loudly as Overcomer finished her statement, with some standing in support.