Gloriavale Beliefs
The world has many different religions, the largest and most popular being Christianity, with over two billion followers, half of which being Catholic. One very small group that call themselves the Christian group, Gloriavale, make up some of the numbers of these statistics. This report will analyse and evaluate the authenticity and safety of Gloriavale.
The Gloriavale Christian Community was founded by an Australian Christian evangelist, Neville Cooper. He often had falling outs with other churches because of his lack and white mindset. Gloriavale began near Rangiora, on the East Coast of the South Island in 1969. The formation came 20 years after Neville Cooper’s evangelizing throughout Australia. Neville wanted to see the gospel being …show more content…
Their key beliefs include salvation, judgement, repentance, forgiveness, baptism, being born again and discipleship. Their key practices are that of family life, social life, economy, education and outreach. Some key principles that they also follow are: trust God for our daily bread, hold all things in common, keep the golden rule, do not borrow money, walk the strait and narrow path, forsake all to follow Jesus, take up our cross daily and love our enemies. The aim at Gloriavale is to have a christ-centred society working on biblical principles. They want to make their community a place where it is hard to live a selfish life and easy to find God’s will and live in service to Jesus. They seek a practical life as a Christian that mirrors life in heaven, where there’s complete obedience to God, complete unity of thought, no self-will, no argument or strife, and no sin. The whole community operates as a large family with each man, woman and child allocated jobs to help …show more content…
They did however make headlines in 1995 when Neville Cooper was jailed for almost a year on sexual abuse charges. He was convicted based on the testimony of his son and of a young woman who had fled Gloriavale. The community has over 90 families making up it’s numbers.
Children at Gloriavale do not attend public schools in the local town, they go to a private school within the grounds. The school can teach their students up to a university entrance standard in academic subjects. They are also accredited in some practical subjects to teach up to level 3 in the NCEA system according to the New Zealand curriculum. If there is any need for members to gain a tertiary qualification then the elders will enrol them in a suitable institution which offer correspondence courses.
Members are unable to go to the actual tertiary education facilities as Gloriavale as stated on their website say “We are not interested in education for the sake of education, nor in placing our people in university campuses where ungodly attitudes can prevail. We are interested in education only where it can equip us to meet the needs of our community life.” They say that there aren’t many young people who would ask to attend university unless they believed it was a need for the community. About 25% of the adult population at Gloriavale has university or national
The Gloriavale Christian Community was founded by an Australian Christian evangelist, Neville Cooper. He often had falling outs with other churches because of his lack and white mindset. Gloriavale began near Rangiora, on the East Coast of the South Island in 1969. The formation came 20 years after Neville Cooper’s evangelizing throughout Australia. Neville wanted to see the gospel being …show more content…
Their key beliefs include salvation, judgement, repentance, forgiveness, baptism, being born again and discipleship. Their key practices are that of family life, social life, economy, education and outreach. Some key principles that they also follow are: trust God for our daily bread, hold all things in common, keep the golden rule, do not borrow money, walk the strait and narrow path, forsake all to follow Jesus, take up our cross daily and love our enemies. The aim at Gloriavale is to have a christ-centred society working on biblical principles. They want to make their community a place where it is hard to live a selfish life and easy to find God’s will and live in service to Jesus. They seek a practical life as a Christian that mirrors life in heaven, where there’s complete obedience to God, complete unity of thought, no self-will, no argument or strife, and no sin. The whole community operates as a large family with each man, woman and child allocated jobs to help …show more content…
They did however make headlines in 1995 when Neville Cooper was jailed for almost a year on sexual abuse charges. He was convicted based on the testimony of his son and of a young woman who had fled Gloriavale. The community has over 90 families making up it’s numbers.
Children at Gloriavale do not attend public schools in the local town, they go to a private school within the grounds. The school can teach their students up to a university entrance standard in academic subjects. They are also accredited in some practical subjects to teach up to level 3 in the NCEA system according to the New Zealand curriculum. If there is any need for members to gain a tertiary qualification then the elders will enrol them in a suitable institution which offer correspondence courses.
Members are unable to go to the actual tertiary education facilities as Gloriavale as stated on their website say “We are not interested in education for the sake of education, nor in placing our people in university campuses where ungodly attitudes can prevail. We are interested in education only where it can equip us to meet the needs of our community life.” They say that there aren’t many young people who would ask to attend university unless they believed it was a need for the community. About 25% of the adult population at Gloriavale has university or national