New Zealand’s charity regulator has removed the principal trust behind the Gloriavale religious community from the charities register after concluding that its resources enabled serious and sustained wrongdoing.
The Christian Church Community Trust, which owns much of the community’s property and businesses, will be ineligible to reapply for charitable status for three years from September 23. Former leader Howard Temple has also been disqualified from serving as an officer of a registered charity for five years.
The Charities Registration Board’s decision followed an investigation into the trust’s governance and its response to conduct including child labor and sexual abuse. Courts have previously found that some Gloriavale residents worked in conditions amounting to employment rather than genuine volunteering, and Temple was convicted in 2025 of sexual offending against girls and women.
Deregistration does not dissolve the trust, but it removes the legal and tax advantages attached to registered charitable status. The decision therefore reaches the financial structure supporting the isolated South Island community, not only its former leadership. The trust may challenge the determination through the available appeal process.
