Category: Gloriavale Community

For hundreds of people living in a cut-off community called Gloriavale on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island, Neville Cooper speaks the word of God.

For his son Phil, Neville Cooper was a controlling, manipulative, sexual deviant who set out to dominate every aspect of his life – from who he could marry to what he named his children.

Phil Cooper has told his story in a book, Sins of the Father, which has been released recently.

One News (New Zealand), Apr. 20, 2003 http://onenews.nzoom.com/ A former member of a South Island religious sect is claiming around $80,000 from the community, saying he worked for years there with no pay. Mark Christian, the 21-year-old grandson of the leader of the Gloriavale Community, is also threatening a civil court case to claim the lost wages. Christian left Gloriavale, near Greymouth, to make a new life in Christchurch just over two years ago. He says he wabted to continue schooling but was forced to leave at age 15. More than 300 people live in the settlement on the edge