A Religious Community Cut Off From the World Forced Women Into Submission for Decades. Inside New Zealand's Gloriavale Cult
The secretive religious group is the subject of the new Paramount+ documentary, 'Devotion: Obedience or Betrayal'
People/June 5, 2026
By Christopher Rudolph
NEED TO KNOW
- The Gloriavale Christian Community is a secretive group located in New Zealand
- Members of the cult have been accused of sexual abuse
- Gloriavale is the subject of the new Paramount+ documentary, Devotion: Obedience or Betrayal
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.
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.
Our new app is here! Free, fun and full of exclusives. Scan to download now!
Members of Gloriavale don't own any personal assets, per Vice. Outsiders who want to join must undergo a process known as "submitting," or surrendering their career, opinions, possessions, contact with the outside world and free will to the group, per the New Zealand news outlet Stuff.
Those who live at Gloriavale also have little access to the outside world, which is believed to be "evil," according to New Zealand Geographic. In Devotion: Obedience or Betrayal, Gloriavale is compared to Gilead from The Handmaid's Tale because of the community's strict patriarchal society.
Gloriavale is run by men who are known as "Shepherds." The Shepherds "exercise absolute autocracy over the community, they have final say in decisions about marriage, about dealing with church discipline and operating the financial aspects of the community," religious historian Peter Lineham explained to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in November 2022.
Gloriavale members follow a dress code, with the women wearing long dresses and handkerchiefs covering their heads. In the FAQ section of the Gloriavale website, the group writes that the women wear head coverings "as a sign to the angels that a woman has placed herself in submission to the authority of the man."
Work is also divided along gender lines, with women responsible for housework and birthing "as many babies as they could," according to Lilia Tarawa, the granddaughter of Christian.
"Babies were a big part of life in Gloriavale. Birth control and abortion were strictly forbidden," she wrote in her memoir, Daughter of Gloriavale: My Life in a Religious Cult, which was excerpted by The Guardian in August 2017.
According to the section of the Gloriavale website devoted to their practices, "As we trust God for our needs and do not practice birth control, a married couple may have 12 or more children. This natural increase helps us keep our living standards realistic and prevents us from becoming self-indulgent."
There has been a history of sexual abuse allegations against members of Gloriavale going back decades.
According to Devotion: Obedience or Betrayal, at least 14 members of the community have been convicted of sexual or physical abuse over the last 30 years.
One of those members was Christian, who in 1994 was found guilty of 10 counts of indecent assault against five young complainants, according to RNZ. He was originally sentenced to six years in prison, but after an appeal and retrial, it was reduced to five on three charges of indecent assault, per the outlet.
Christian would end up serving 11 months, per Otago Daily Times. After his release from prison, he returned to Gloriavale and resumed his role as "overseeing shepherd."
Meanwhile, member Jonathan Benjamin was found guilty of 11 charges of sexual offending and sentenced to 11 years and 10 months in jail in March 2024, per RNZ. His son, Gideon, has since left the community.
In Tarawa's book, she also alleged witnessing physical abuse at the hands of teachers and other members.
As of 2024, Gloriavale had "around 600 members," according to Radio New Zealand. That same year, New Zealand's The Press reported that more than 270 members have left Gloriavale since 2011.
There is a Gloriavale Leavers Support Trust, which is run by Liz Gregory, who spoke with RNZ's podcast, The Detail, in June 2021.
"We call it the big wave, and it just hasn't stopped for eight years," said Gregory. "They're coming literally like refugees with very little personal possessions or money. We're talking about every single detail of a person's life needing to be set up from scratch."
Some of those who have escaped are Christian's grandson, Phil Cooper, and granddaughter Tarawa, both of whom are interviewed in Devotion: Obedience or Betrayal.
After Christian's death from cancer in May 2018, Howard Temple, a leader at Gloriavale, was chosen as his successor.
In 2023, Temple was arrested, and in 2025, he pleaded guilty to 12 indecency and assault charges against women at Gloriavale, who ranged in ages between 9 and 20, according to the Associated Press. He was originally facing 24 charges, but admitted to an amended list of 12.
Temple, who was 85 at the time of sentencing, did not end up in jail, but instead served 11 months of home detention, per The Press. Stephen Standfast took over as overseeing shepherd.
"People are calling for it to be torn apart, others are saying everyone has a right to live as they choose," Lilia said in Devotion. "But I think Gloriavale will come to its natural end, as more stories are told, as people leave, depending on how the court cases go as well."
