The Gloriavale Christian Community is a small and isolated community located at Haupiri on the West Coast of the South Island in New Zealand. It had a recorded population of roughly 468 as of the 2023 census. It has operated on a property owned by the registered charitable Christian Church Community Trust since 1991.

Gloriavale was founded in 1969 by travelling evangelist Neville Cooper ("Hopeful Christian"). Originating as the Springbank Christian Community, the group established a settlement called Gloriavale in the South Island's West Coast Region during the 1990s. Gloriavale Christian Community became self-sufficient with its own school and various agricultural, tourism, and transportation businesses including a short-lived airline called Air West Coast.

Cooper served as leader (known as "Overseeing Shepherd"). Following his 1995 conviction on three counts of indecent assault and subsequent prison sentence, he remained as leader until his death in 2018. He was succeeded by Howard Temple, who served as leader until August 2025, when he resigned after pleading guilty to 12 charges of indecently assaulting young women and girls. The current leader of Gloriavale is Stephen Standfast.

Gloriavale Christian Community is known for its fundamentalist Christian beliefs and practices. Key beliefs and practices have included an emphasis on large families and female submission to male headship. Members (also known as the Cooperites) wear distinctive uniforms, with males wearing long-sleeve blue shirts and trousers, and females wearing long blue dresses and scarves. Gloriavale has also controversially shunned members who have left the community over disagreements with the leadership.

During the early 21st century, Gloriavale attracted significant media coverage and public interest in New Zealand following various allegations and incidents of sexual assault, physical assault, and workplace exploitation. Two separate Employment Court rulings in May 2022 and July 2023 found that its members including women and girls were employees who were subjected to prolonged labour exploitation and servitude. In May 2022, Gloriavale's leadership apologised for various acts of abuse and labour exploitation that had occurred within the community. Several Gloriavale leavers including Lilia Tarawa and Gloriavale Leavers' Support Trust have sought to raise awareness of abuses in Gloriavale and help former residents integrate into New Zealand society.

History Origins The group was founded in 1969 by Neville Cooper (aka "Hopeful Christian"), an Australian-born preacher who was invited to New Zealand, having earlier (as a member of the Voice of Deliverance Evangelist Mission) survived a near fatal 1965 plane crash in south-east Queensland.

Following a period as a travelling evangelist in New Zealand, Cooper returned to Australia and brought his wife and children to New Zealand. Following 18 months of travelling the country, the Coopers settled in Rangiora near Christchurch, where Cooper helped found the local New Life Church. Following a breakdown in the relationship with the local New Life pastor, Cooper established his own church called "The Christian Church" at Springbank near Christchurch, bringing half of the Rangiora New Life congregation with him. They became known as the Springbank Christian Community.

The Springbank Christian Community acquired a farm in Cust from the Harrison family, two of whose sons married two of Cooper's daughters. The Springbank Community built a school, church complex, and established several plumbing, drainlaying, gasfitting, aircraft engineering, motor mechanics, waterbed manufacturing, and cabinetry businesses at the Cust farm. In addition, the Church also raised pigs, sheep and grew crops. While at Cust, the Springbank Christian Community established a point system for members to share wages and profits from the church businesses. Since the church provided food and basic needs, members shut down their personal accounts and came to depend on church distributions to live. In addition, Cooper instituted modest blue uniforms for members including long dresses for women.

Relocation to Haupiri Valley After the Springbank Christian Community outgrew its Cust site, they relocated to a larger property on the West Coast Region of the South Island between 1991 and 1995. This new settlement, located in the Haupiri Valley was named "Gloriavale" after the wife of Neville Cooper, and established the existing Gloriavale Christian Community, roughly inland from Greymouth.

Cooper and his followers purchased two large dairy farms in Haupiri Valley and across the Haupiri river called Glenhopeful. From 1999, more infrastructure including a church called "Gloriavale," four large hostels, sheds, and a main centre were gradually built. The main centre housed a commercial kitchen, mess hall, school rooms, preschool, office spaces, commercial laundry, boiler room, and several living spaces. This main centre was also used for communal gatherings and feasts.

In addition to the two dairy farms, Gloriavale established several enterprises including a sphagnum-moss export business called "Discoveries in Gardening," a deer farm, pet food manufacturing plant, a helicopter-servicing business, and a hunting lodge venture called "Wilderness Quest NZ." Work in Gloriavale was organised along gender lines with women being limited to mainly hospitality and child-raising roles.

The community runs Gloriavale Christian School, a private coeducational composite (years 1–13) school with a roll of 200. The school moved to the West Coast in 1990.

On 10 August 2025, Gloriavale's Overseeing Shepherd Howard Temple resigned after pleading guilty to 12 charges of sexual offending against women and girls in late July 2025. Stephen Standfast was designated as his successor.

On 14 August 2026, a boiler shed at Gloriavale's Value Protein pet food plant was destroyed during a fire.

On 22 September 2026, the Charities Registration Board stripped Gloriavale's Christian Church Community Trust of its charitable status for "serious wrongdoing" including the use of child labour, unsafe and dangerous working conditions and the failure of Gloriavale's school to report sexual offending against children.

Air West Coast

Gloriavale owned Air West Coast Ltd in 2021.

Air West Coast's Christchurch service ended due to a lack of passengers in April 2003. Air West Coast reviewed its service and dropped Westport stopover from the Greymouth to Wellington flight on 27 June 2008.

Demographics Statistics New Zealand describes Gloriavale as a rural settlement, covering . It had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km. The 2023 census showed a population of 468 people, with 101 babies having been born in the community between 2018 and 2023. The census also reported that Gloriavale had the youngest population and the highest birth rate in the country, as well as the lowest median income, with the average personal income being $19,500 a year.

Gloriavale is part of the larger Lake Brunner statistical area.

Gloriavale had a population of 468 in the 2023 New Zealand census, a decrease of 141 people (−23.2%) since the 2018 census, and a decrease of 27 people (−5.5%) since the 2013 census. There were 231 males and 237 females in 0 dwellings. The median age was 12.0 years (compared with 38.1 years nationally). There were 279 people (59.6%) aged under 15 years, 90 (19.2%) aged 15 to 29, 81 (17.3%) aged 30 to 64, and 18 (3.8%) aged 65 or older.

People could identify as more than one ethnicity. The results were 99.4% European (Pākehā), 1.3% Māori, and 1.3% other, which includes people giving their ethnicity as "New Zealander". English was spoken by 92.3%, Māori by 0.6%, and other languages by 1.3%. No language could be spoken by 7.1% (e.g. too young to talk). The percentage of people born overseas was 3.8, compared with 28.8% nationally.

Religious affiliations were 83.3% Christian, 0.6% Jewish, and 0.6% other religions. People who answered that they had no religion were 10.9%, and 4.5% of people did not answer the census question.

Of those at least 15 years old, 24 (12.7%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, 138 (73.0%) had a post-high school certificate or diploma, and 24 (12.7%) people exclusively held high school qualifications. The median income was $19,500, compared with $41,500 nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was 87 (46.0%) full-time and 24 (12.7%) part-time.

Culture and beliefs Known by some outsiders as the "Cooperites" after their leader Neville Cooper, the group rejects this name and members refer to themselves only as Christians. Members of the community live a fundamentalist Christian life in accordance with their interpretation of the teachings of the New Testament. The community attempts to uphold the example of the first Christian church in Jerusalem (Acts 2:41–47) for its principles of sharing and holding all things in common.

The group teaches that the only true way to salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ and obedience to the commands of God.What We Believe, Springbank, First Edition, The Eighth Month, 1989

According to Stuff, several key beliefs and practices at Gloriavale include creationism, a ban of contraception and divorce, an emphasis on large families, and female submission to male headship. In addition, members of the community do not celebrate birthdays, anniversaries and holidays such as Christmas and Easter. Children are also not immunised. Men and boys are expected to keep their hair short and wear a light blue shirt and dark blue pants, while women wear long blue dresses and cover their heads with scarves. Outsiders wanting to join Gloriavale undergo an initiation process known as "submitting," which involves abandoning their careers, opinions, possessions, outside contact, and free will.

Work at Gloriavale is organised along gender lines. Work opportunities for most women in the community are limited to domestic work including food preparation and cleaning. Male members work in Gloriavale's businesses and construction work. According to Tarawa, founder Neville Cooper discouraged female members of Gloriavale from developing leadership qualities due to his belief that women were mandated by God to submit to male leadership; citing his dismissive response to her school report card.

Those who leave the community are sometimes shunned and denied contact with family members who have not left Gloriavale; because most residents in Gloriavale are born into the community, this can often comprise a person's entire family.

On 29 March 2020, it was reported that members of the Gloriavale community were failing to comply with lockdown procedures amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand, with reports that childcare at community-run daycare centres, lessons at community-run schools, and meetings were all continuing despite social distancing measures. Police within the area later confirmed that they were working with Gloriavale in order to ensure that members of its community abided by lockdown restrictions.

Sexual and physical abuse

Neville Cooper