A Religious Community Cut Off From the World Forced Women Into Submission for Decades. Inside New Zealand’s Gloriavale Cult
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Located in a remote part of New Zealand, the Gloriavale Christian Community has been compared to Gilead from The Handmaid’s Tale.
The secretive religious cult was founded in 1969 by Neville Cooper, who later changed his name to Hopeful Christian. The group — which currently has around 600 members and lives communally on a property in New Zealand — follows strict patriarchal rules and has had a history of sexual abuse allegations.
Gloriavale has been the subject of multiple documentaries, including a new three-part docuseries, Devotion: Obedience or Betrayal, which premiered June 2 on Paramount+.
Here’s everything to know about the secretive Gloriavale Christian Community.
Gloriavale was founded by Neville Cooper in 1969
In 1969, Cooper, an Australian evangelist, founded a religious group near Rangiora, on the South Island of New Zealand, according to the Gloriavale website.
Members of the group were given the nickname “Cooperites” by outsiders. Later, Neville would legally change his name to “Hopeful Christian,” and others would follow his lead, also changing their names to be more aspirational and biblical.
With the community expanding, the church bought property on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand in 1991. The property was named Gloriavale, after Neville’s late wife.
“Hopeful’s word was basically as good as God’s word. God speaks through him to the church, that’s how we viewed him,” Gideon Benjamin, a former community member, said in episode 1 of Devotion: Obedience or Betrayal.
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Content retrieved from: https://people.com/inside-gloriavale-cult-11990231.
