formal warnings to two people at Gloriavale<\/a>, after an investigation into a practice of silencing babies and children by covering their mouths and noses.<\/p>\nOn Friday, the NZ Herald reported that Gloriavale founder Hopeful Christian sent a letter to followers, while in jail for sexual offending, instructing them to break the self-will of babies “long before they are two years old”.<\/p>\n
The joint investigation by police and Oranga Tamariki was a result of concerns raised during the Abuse in Care Royal Commission.<\/p>\n
They held a meeting at Gloriavale last year, where they said the physical, emotional and legal ramifications of the practice were made clear to parents.<\/p>\n
In a statement, a community spokesperson said Gloriavale’s leadership did not stand by statements attributed to the community from almost 30 years ago about breaking a child’s will.<\/p>\n
“These principles are not taught in Gloriavale today and have not been part of our teaching for many years,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
They said community leadership was committed to nurturing families, and raising children with care, respect and strong relationships.<\/p>\n
“Our community embraces relationship-centred parenting approaches that prioritise emotional safety, guidance, and mutual respect,” they said.<\/p>\n
“We actively review our practices and these continue to evolve as we learn, ensuring our approach reflects current understanding, and the best interests of children and families.”<\/p>\n
Between 2016-22, all parents had completed a non-violent parenting programme led by Gloriavale group leaders that was approved and recommended by the Ministry of Education, and endorsed and encouraged by the leadership.<\/p>\n
“Over this time, parents have completed the course – not once, but 2-3 times – to embed the knowledge into their own understanding and parenting practice,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
Parents had also attended professional development presentations, where they had worked with internationally renowned specialists in child development and positive behaviour management.<\/p>\n
They said parents took part in another internationally recognised, non-violent parenting education programme that focused on the family unit and supporting positive family relationships.<\/p>\n
Gloriavale said teachers at the school and early childhood centre were also trained in all the programmes to provide consistency across settings and support children’s well-being.<\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police and Oranga Tamariki explained the ramifications of the practice to Gloriavale parents last year. Photo: Jean Edwards…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-84325","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-podcasts","13":"tag-public-radio","14":"tag-radio-new-zealand","15":"tag-rnz","16":"tag-top-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-topnews","19":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}