WELLINGTON, New Zealand — The charity arm of a cloistered New Zealand commune was stripped of its tax-exempt status Tuesday after an investigation found the trust's funds enabled "serious wrongdoing" by the religious group, including the use of child labor and failing to report sexual crime.
Gloriavale, a conservative Christian sect, is based on a sprawling ranch on New Zealand’s South Island, where about 600 people live on land owned by the Christian Church Community Trust and work as volunteers at the trust’s businesses.
The government’s Charities Registration Board said Tuesday that the group’s charitable status will be revoked for three years beginning Sept. 23.
Funds provided by Gloriavale’s trust allowed the group “to operate in ways found to be unlawful and inconsistent with the wellbeing of trust beneficiaries,” the charities board said in a statement.
Calls to remove the group's charitable status grew after the former leader Howard Temple was convicted in 2025 of sexually abusing girls and women aged between 9 and 20 over a period of two decades.
Temple's conviction followed a landmark 2022 court ruling that former members had been unpaid employees of the trust’s businesses, not volunteers. Children as young as 6 labored full-time, while workers faced harsh and sometimes dangerous conditions, forced labor, deprivation of food and public shaming, the employment court found.
The charities board cited the employment court ruling and referenced the non-reporting of sexual offenses against a child at Gloriavale’s school, which is owned by the trust.
The group can appeal the decision of the charities board. A Gloriavale spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Stripping a religious group of charity status is unusual
New Zealand trusts formed by religious groups are rarely stripped of charity status because of organizational practices rather than administrative reasons or problems with financial returns.
“The Board recognises the right of the community to exist as a religious minority within a free and democratic society” Charities Registration Board chair Jane Wrightson said in a statement. “The Board regulates the Trust, not the community, and this decision does not determine the future operation of this religious community.”
Objections from the trust included the historical nature of the wrongdoing and the consequences of the decision for hundreds of people, including “children, the elderly and the infirm,” the charities board said.
The trust made “significant changes” in recent years, including governance and safeguarding reforms. However, the “seriousness, scale and duration” of the misconduct meant deregistration was in the public interest, the board said.
The decision came weeks after New Zealand's Ministry of Education said it had revoked the registration of the sect’s school and was pursuing plans to close it over fears for the physical and emotional safety of the students. The school with about 80 students remains open while legal processes continue.
Impact of taxes on Gloriavale remain unclear
Gloriavale has for decades been a subject of fascination and concern in New Zealand. Founded in the 1970s, the sect is mostly isolated from the outside world.
Members share all money, live in buildings owned by the trust, don’t speak to relatives who leave the group and work or study within the commune. Women and girls wear navy-colored, ankle-length dresses with white headdresses. Adherents are required to have large families and only men can serve in leadership roles.
The sect attracted attention during a broader official inquiry into decades of abuse at New Zealand's state and religious institutions. The final report, published in 2024, found Gloriavale had for decades prohibited members from reporting crimes to outside authorities and included former members' descriptions of physical and sexual abuse.
The trust’s money comes from its businesses, including large-scale farming and a charter flights company, and from government funding for its school and daycare centers. The future impact of the group's loss of charitable status, which also rescinds tax-exempt privileges, is unclear.
Gloriavale's latest financial returns, filed in July 2025, listed one full-time employee of the trust and 23 volunteers. The trust’s assets totaled 50 million New Zealand dollars ($29 million), according to the document.
Temple, Gloriavale's former leader and a previous charity trustee, also was banned from charity governance posts for five years, the board said. The 85-year-old's prison sentence for sexual offenses was overturned in March and he is serving home detention.
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