The organisations believed headed by cult followers included the Helidon Sports and Recreation Association, Tabletop Junior Arts and Craft Club, Southeast Queensland Junior Astronomers and the Helidon Celtic Historical Society. Some are on a website, registered to cult follower Clare Birchley.
Australian taxpayers have given thousands of dollars to organisations linked to the controversial religious cult Magnificat Meal Movement.
Local officials now fear the organisations are being used as a front for festivals to generate large amounts of cash for the cult.
The self-proclaimed visionary who told followers she was receiving messages from the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ, attracted up to 400 followers after she moved to Toowoomba in 1992 from Melbourne.
HELIDON – cult leader Debra Geileskey has been allegedly travelling on a false passport claiming to be a diplomat from a fictitious country called Caledonia Australis. The sect leader, who attracted followers by claiming to receive messages from the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ, allegedly had postage stamps issued from the fictitious country and used them to successfully send mail to the US. Academic Mike Garde, who has been studying Geileskey’s Magnificat Meal Movement for a PhD, claims Geileskey has also been caught running a gold investment scam. As well she had allegedly presented promissory notes amounting to more than
BELMONT, Mass. —The Mormons left Boston more than 160 years ago, breaking up the young religion’s largest congregation in the eastern U.S. around 1845 to seek refuge in a solitary West. Their founder, Joseph Smith, had been killed the previous year by a mob in an Illinois prison and church adherents were despised as heretics. So the 400 members of the Boston church found strength in numbers, joining Mormons nationwide to migrate to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. It took more than a century for Mormons to return in notable numbers to Massachusetts in the 1960s, and longer
A wealthy US couple has launched legal action against alleged Magnificat Meal Movement “cult” leader Debra Geileskey for refusing to repay a $600,000 property loan. Claire and Dr Antoine Mansour also claim they intend to sue Ms Geileskey for millions of dollars over claims they had been involved in the production of a pornographic movie. MMM fell into controversy in the late 1990s when Ms Geileskey claimed to have received personal messages from the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ. At its height, the cult attracted more than 400 people to monthly, first Saturday devotions at a former convent next door
A nephew of Charles Haughey, who shocked friends by moving to Australia to join a controversial cult, has returned home to Ireland to live. Niall Haughey and his family left Ireland behind in March 2003 to pledge their lives to the bizarre enclosed religious group Magnificat Meal Movement (MMM), whose members are told the outside world is evil. Mr Haughey is the son of the former Taoiseach’s brother Sean Haughey, a city and county manager who retired in 1989. After 10 months with the cult – which has a number of Irish members due to its base in Catholicism –
Five cult members were arrested after trying to stop police from executing a search warrant at a property west of Brisbane today. Police were proceeding to execute the warrant at a property at Ballam Hill, near Gatton, around noon (AEST) when the members of the Magnificat Meal Movement stopped them from entering. Five men, aged between 17 and 34, will face Gatton Magistrates Court on September 16 charged with obstructing police. A police spokeswoman said officers later executed the search warrant. Magnificat Meal Movement leader Debra Burslem has attracted international attention with claims she received messages from Jesus and the
The Courier Mail (Australia), July 16, 2003 http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/ Amanda Gearing Federal police are searching for a four-year-old girl after a dawn raid yesterday on a rural retreat owned by Helidon cult leader Debra Geileskey failed to locate the child. Several carloads of federal police swooped on the cult leader’s property which also is home to several cult members who are living in two houses, a church, a converted stable and a shed on the property. A spokesman said the police were called in to enforce a custody order issued by the Family Court to recover the child. Police set up
The Courier Mail (Australia), June 14, 2003 http://www.news.com.au/ David Murray and Amanda Gearing Cult leader Debra Geileskey who claims she has visions of the Virgin Mary has amassed a property empire worth more than $3.5 million. The former school teacher whose Magnificat Meal Movement headquarters are based at Helidon, 80km west of Brisbane, also owns four Mercedes-Benz with matching number plates. Land title searches show she owns or part owns at least 20 properties, including homes, farms, offices, shops and units. In the past 18 months, Ms Geileskey and companies in which she is the sole director bought $2.3 million