At the age of 27, father of five, Phil Cooper, walked away from the religious community his father Neville had created and still controls 20 years later. This is Phil’s story and the story of his seven children, their mother Sandra, and their struggles to live in a family that’s split between the outside world and what is now called the Gloriavale Christian Community.

Early in his life, Phil had no choice about belonging to the strict, fundamentalist religious cult. His father required obedience from his children and Phil was a young teenager when Neville began the process of drawing his followers apart from the world.

Neville first established his community in rural Springbank in Canterbury, near the small township of Cust. Followers were attracted by his growing reputation as a charismatic preacher and a true man of God. Gradually he pulled them away from mainstream religious practice. By the late 1980s all were living communally in purpose-built accommodation on the small farm owned by his eldest daughter and her husband.

Within a few years, the community had bought hundreds of hectares of land at Haupiri on the West Coast, inland from Greymouth. Neville called this property Gloriavale in honour of his wife Gloria who died in 1991. When an adjoining farm was bought he called it Glen Hopeful after himself, having changed his name by deed poll from Neville Cooper to Hopeful Christian.

Phil left the community late in 1989 while it was still at Springbank and not as isolated as at remote Haupiri. Gloriavale, now twice the size of the founding community, has developed somewhat different structures to organise its 400 people. Gloriavale owns considerably more land and operates a variety of industries. It is not known whether the dark history of the Springbank days is being repeated in Gloriavale. People who have connections with it believe not; Phil hopes they are right.

In 2008 Phil and Israel, his eldest son, decided it was time to tell their story, and I was approached to help them do it.

FLEUR BEALE