Gloriavale is also under the spotlight with a three-part documentary series called Escaping Utopia currently airing on TVNZ 1 revisiting the origins of the Christian Community.
Series co-director Justin Pemberton told The Front Page podcast the name comes from how children born into Gloriavale are taught to believe the community is the Utopian vision of Earth, and if they leave, they will be “damning themselves to eternal damnation”.
The accounts also disclose a number of outstanding legal issues, including:
- Claims assets are being held on a constructive trust;
- Claims in the Human Rights Review alleging unlawful discrimination and victimisation;
- An ongoing dispute with the Bank of New Zealand, which is seeking to discontinue banking services. Gloriavale won in the High Court, but BNZ has flagged an appeal;
- An unusual “out-of-cycle” Employment Review Office look into the operations of Gloriavale Christian School which found eight areas for improvement. A “remedial action plan is being formulated with external consultation under the oversight of the Ministry of Education”.
Gloriavale was also the subject of Employment Court action that in December found six women were employees - not volunteers - during their time working long hours at the secretive Christian commune.
Former Gloriavale leader Howard Temple is also facing 24 charges of indecent assault against 10 girls between 1998 and 2022. He has pleaded not guilty.
Gloriavale Christian School had 140 students enrolled in 2023, down from 164 the year prior. The community’s preschool, after having provided 19,122 teaching hours in 2022, only delivered 2703 in 2023 “as operations were suspended for seven months due to social pressures on parents and maintenance works”.
The accounts also note Gloriavale for the first time employed a chief executive, reported to be former SBS executive Phil Jamieson. The position, listed as only part-time (0.75 FTE), is recorded as having attracted $215,000 in compensation for the nine months after the role was established in November 2022.
The accounts list a wide range of commercial entities run by the community which were active over the 2023 year, including: a midwifery service employing two registered midwives; dairy farming that sold nearly eight million litres of milk; a deer farm that sold 721 animals; a farm engineering company that conducted $404,000 in repairs and maintenance; and a rendering company that processes waste from freezing works that produced $3.5m of meal and tallow.
Last year’s financial decline also hit Gloriavale community members in the back pocket, with labour costs paid out declining from $4.1m to $2.1m over the year.
“The substantial reduction reflects discontinuation of services provided, reduction in commodity prices and impacting supply and consumer continuity,” the accounts said.
Gloriavale is reported to have accumulated $48.8m in assets, including $25.2m in land holdings, with negligible liabilities.
Matt Nippert is an Auckland-based investigations reporter covering white-collar and transnational crimes and the intersection of politics and business. He has won more than a dozen awards for his journalism - including twice being named Reporter of the Year - and joined the Herald in 2014 after having spent the decade prior reporting from business newspapers and national magazines.
