Simon Plumb writes that the secretive community Gloriavale church is one of t three wealthiest churches in NZ. Its wealth of over $40 million in assets consists of ‘ property, deer and dairy stocks and “vehicle and aircraft”'. Plus donations from its flock through tithing.
He notes that Gloriavale recently states its Christian Church Community Trust has $41.4m in total assets. Most of that is in land ($10.4m) and buildings ($11.6m) but it also has deer and dairy stocks worth $4.8m and $928,000 in "vehicles and aircraft".
Massey University Professor Peter Lineham, an expert in New Zealand's religious history and activity. says, the community is also a very regulated existence. "It's a highly controlled life and manipulated structure with ­arranged marriages....Their recruitment is entirely from a very high birth rate. But every single member in the ­community is in fact working under community orders, for the community. Nobody gets a ­separate income. All expenditure is controlled by the community."
But these are just the wealthiest of the churches.