A former Gloriavale member says he was told there are limits on the number of children a family can have if they live outside the commune.
Former resident John Ready claims that on one occasion Overseeing Shepherd Howard Temple said “you could not have a family over two children in the wider community”.
He said that prompted his eldest daughter to respond with “bull****”, which was heard by others.
READ MORE: Former Gloriavale resident details expulsion from commune
“She, together with myself and my wife, were summoned together to a meeting with the Overseeing Shepherd and all the Shepherds and Servants.
“We were told we had to take her out of the community. She was made to sign a resignation from the Partnership, given $1000 cash,” said Ready.
The Employment Court heard the leadership expected Ready to take his daughter to the Greymouth train station, where she would catch a train to Christchurch.
“This was something I could not do. She was my 17-year-old daughter and had lived her life in the community, so instead, I took her to stay with an aunt who was living in Timaru.
“The reason she was told to leave was that the leadership was tired of her questioning the teachings by the Shepherds,” said Ready.
The incident made Ready realise that his children were very vulnerable to the leadership, which disturbed him “greatly”.
“It just seemed contrary to all my beliefs that they would treat a teenager in this manner.
“After she left, the community started to generally mock me and try to isolate me inside the community because I had disobeyed the expectation of the leaders in taking my daughter to an aunty in Timaru,” said Ready.
There were allegations that women’s only value at Gloriavale was to work and produce babies.
John Ready said parents had no effective say in who their children would get married to, and the couple getting married are not generally free to choose who they will marry.
He said they are told by the leaders that God has chosen “this person” or “that person” for them and if they don’t agree to the marriage, they are seen as being disobedient and not submitting.
“People in the Community generally get married between the ages of 16 years old and the early twenties, so for example, if a girl’s peers are married and particularly if those younger than her are getting married, then she is looked down on and thought of as lower in the social ranks.
“Should my girls have remained in the community the way it currently is, the best they could have hoped for is that a suitable husband would be chosen for them and that they would be able to produce babies at the accepted rate,” said Ready.
The court is considering whether six women who did domestic duties at Gloriavale are volunteers or employees. The hearing is continuing.
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