Gloriavale members confront past crimes and defend right to a future in new documentary

Sunday, 28 June 2026

Gloriavale members confront past crimes and defend their right to a future in a new documentary, including the well-known Dove Love and the new Overseeing Shepherd.

New Overseeing Shepherd Stephen Standfast told documentary makers God wanted them to have this way of life.

“We’re not going to give up on it easily.”

The West Coast religious community opened its doors and 25 current members were interviewed for Devotion: The Gloriavale Story, a three-part documentary series produced by NHNZ International.

It features interviews with people within and outside the Gloriavale community, and airs archival footage filmed in the community over 50 years.

Producer Dame Julie Christie said it aimed to present a breadth of perspectives, allowing audiences to engage with the material without editorial commentary.

“We have heard a lot more from people outside the community and my view is the audience would be interested in what people inside Gloriavale have to say about their past, present and future,” she said.

Members describe Gloriavale as a place of purpose, spiritual conviction, and resilience in the face of revelations of physical and sexual abuse that have reverberated across the country and sparked ongoing public debate and scrutiny.

Former members share a starkly different perspective, one marked by repression, family separation, and the emotional and traumatic toll from life in Gloriavale.

It is the first time new Overseeing Shepherd Stephen Standfast has been interviewed.

Christie said Standfast told her the community was facing up to its past, including physical and sexual child abuse that had been happening in the community for decades, so that it would not happen again. He said the community would not give up on its God-given way of life.

“He impressed me. He is a man of calm mana in a quiet way compared to Hopeful Christian. I can see why he’s in a leadership role,” she said.

The documentary revisits Dove and Watchful Steadfast, who were married in the TVNZ documentary A World Apart 10 years ago.

Christie said Dove had not changed much and was still happily living in the community with seven children.

It also features Paul Valor who appeared in that documentary, but had since left the community. He retains a view that while abuses and trauma occurred, including to himself, there were still good people in there.

Christie said the documentary team visited the community three times and everyone who took part volunteered freely and were not prepared in advance and nor did they give prescreening viewings or approval.

Leaver Lilia Tarawa told her she had previously been interviewed while in the community and had been told what to say.

Christie said she wanted to speak to leavers with different views of the community including Hopeful Christian’s son Phil, and convicted child sex offender Jonathan Benjamin’s son Gideon.

She said the story of Jeremiah Hopeful Maniago, who had left the community but was still in touch and reconciled with his father, senior leader Noah Hopeful, highlighted that people who left were no longer shunned.

She commended leader Peter Righteous for his honesty in sharing how the community leaders failed to protect children from Benjamin’s offending.

He admitted on camera knowing about Benjamin’s offending against children for decades and was allowed to continue living in the communal hostels where he offended up until 2018.

“It was brave to front up. They have the most at risk here. They are facing up to what happened and were very honest about it,” she said.

Christie, who grew up in Greymouth, said it was clear the Gloriavale community were well-connected. Many had cellphones and internet access and were part of the wider community on the West Coast.

Christie said the documentary revealed a complex reality: a community grappling with its past while striving to protect its faith and way of life.

Devotion aims to chart Gloriavale’s evolution from radical religious experiment through national scandal, to a community at a crossroads.

Devotion: The Gloriavale Story is will air on Three and ThreeNow from Sunday to Tuesday at 8.30pm.