Gloriavale Christian community. File photo Photo: Google Maps
Former Gloriavale Christian School principal Faithful Pilgrim is expected to give evidence in the next phase of an Employment Court case resuming today, before a visit to the isolated West Coast community by the chief judge.
Six former Gloriavale women - Serenity Pilgrim, Anna Courage, Rose Standtrue, Crystal Loyal, Pearl Valor and Virginia Courage - are seeking a ruling they were community employees, not volunteers, living in slave-like conditions under a regime of secular and religious control.
Gloriavale's leaders strongly contest the women's claims and deny they were ever employees.
Faithful Pilgrim is one of five Gloriavale defendants in the case, along with Overseeing Shepherd Howard Temple, Samuel Valor, Noah Hopeful and Stephen Standfast, although Pilgrim will be the first to give evidence in Christchurch.
He resigned from a senior leadership position last May following an unprecedented public apology by community leaders for failing to protect victims of labour exploitation and sexual abuse.
Pilgrim was suspended from teaching for three months by the New Zealand Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal last May for serious misconduct, for twice endorsing a teacher he knew had sexually assaulted a nine-year-old girl.
The women's case follows similar legal action by three former Gloriavale men found to have been community employees from the age of just six, doing "strenuous, difficult and sometimes dangerous" work on farms and in factories when they were still legally required to be at school.
The court will sit in Christchurch before temporarily relocating to Greymouth for a week, when chief judge Christina Inglis will visit the community at Haupiri.
"The purpose of the visit is to view the physical premises and relevant facilities to enable the court to better understand the evidence presented in court; there will be no discussion or engagement with residents by the court," she said in a decision released last month.
Gloriavale's leaders had provided a proposed itinerary, setting out the community facilities that might be viewed over the two-hour visit, Inglis said.
A Gloriavale representative would escort people around the premises and provide a commentary on the layout of the buildings, facilities and property in general, she said.
Reconvening part of the hearing on the West Coast could be more convenient for the remaining Gloriavale witnesses and would mean members of the public and others interested in the case could attend a local hearing, Inglis said.
"In this regard [Gloriavale] have indicated that a significant number of Gloriavale residents would wish to attend the hearing if it was held locally," she said.
"Given the public interest in the proceedings it may be that members of the West Coast community would also wish to attend court.
"I consider that the overall interests of justice will best be served by the court sitting in Greymouth during the week of 20-24 February 2023."
Gloriavale says it cannot afford lawyers in ongoing case
Last December, Gloriavale revealed the community would represent itself for the remainder of the Employment Court case.
While the Shepherds were happy with their representation by Philip Skelton KC during the first phase of the hearing, spokesperson Samuel Valor said they could not sustain the cost of a legal team.
They would conduct their own counsel with the assistance of Peter Righteous, he said.
In a court affidavit, the defendants claimed "the prolonged and ongoing nature of this litigation, which is now scheduled to take twice as long as originally contemplated, has simply made it impossible for us to continue to use the community's limited financial resources for legal representation".
"We have reluctantly decided that we will not be represented by legal counsel for the remainder of this proceeding."
Last year, the women told the court they worked long hours on a gruelling four-day rotation once they left the Gloriavale school at the age of 15, including doing cooking, cleaning, communal and commercial laundry and preparing food.
They claimed they could not refuse to work without significant consequences, including denial of food, public shaming, corporal punishment, expulsion from the community and the threat of eternal damnation.
The former members also testified about sexual harassment and abuse at Gloriavale, where they said women and girls were always blamed for sexual misconduct.
Gloriavale members disputed the women's claims, saying the Christian community's leaders did not have total control over their lives and they were not worked off their feet.
The court heard Gloriavale's leaders did not condone sexual offending and had taken steps to address it.
The hearing is scheduled for a further five weeks.