Destiny Church (New Zealand)

Destiny Church is a New Zealand Christian fundamentalist organisation variously described as a church, a religious movement, or a cult. Based in South Auckland and with a strong Māori conservative character, Destiny Church's direction and ideology is highly personalised around its leader and founder, Brian Tamaki, whose title is "Apostle Bishop", and his wife Hannah Tamaki. The couple founded Destiny Church in 1998, and quick growth led to it peaking in 2003 with approximately 5,000 members. As of the 2018 New Zealand Census, the organisation has a recorded 1,772 followers, under a third of the 6,000 claimed by Tamaki.

Destiny Church describes itself as an "iwi-tapu" or a "spiritual tribe of God's people". Its structure is Pentecostal, with Tamaki preaching the prosperity gospel to his followers, who are overwhelmingly Māori and Pasifika. The group advocates strict adherence to Biblical morality, and has a reputation for its vitriolic position against homosexuality, for its patriarchal views and for its calls for a return to Biblical conservative family values and morals. It stands against same-sex marriage.

In the 2000s, Destiny Church expanded outside of Auckland; this was mostly across the Upper North Island, but there is also a branch in Wellington, two in the South Island, and one in Australia on the Gold Coast in Queensland, which has a very significant Māori population. Rising to prominence in the 2000s, Destiny Church sponsored a nationwide rally against civil unions, attempted to build a commune, Tamaki soon became extremely opposed to lockdowns and mask mandates in New Zealand, and the group partook in the 2022 Wellington anti-vaccine protest. none of which gained more than 0.5% of the party vote.

Since the beginning of the Gaza war, the group has strongly backed Israel and performed haka to show support for the Israel Defence Forces. Tamaki's actions and rhetoric have attracted criticism from the New Zealand media and from other public figures. He has been criticised for blaming the 2011 Christchurch earthquake on the "sexual perversion" of gay people, and for holding a gathering of 700 men who swore a "covenant"

oath of allegiance, obedience, and deference to him. For his actions, Tamaki has run afoul of the law, having been imprisoned for breaching bail conditions as he took part in an anti-vaccination protest in Christchurch.

Organisation

Leadership

thumb|upright|Brian Tamaki at a church conference in [[Auckland (22 October 2006)]]

Described by religious expert Peter Lineham as "Māori-focused", Destiny Church is led by Brian Tamaki and his wife Hannah Tamaki, who hold the positions of Visionary and Senior Ministers. The Tamakis established the organisation together in 1998 as a splinter from their previous investment, Lake City Church in Rotorua. Their three adult children Jasmine, Jamie, and Samuel are all actively involved in the church ministry. Samuel and his wife pastor the Destiny church on the Gold Coast in Australia, Jamie and her husband are the CEO of ManUp and Legacy International, Jasmine and her husband facilitate social services within the ManUp and Legacy organisation. Brian and Hannah have 5 generations of their family in Destiny Church. Following a unanimous agreement by the then 19 other pastors of Destiny Churches throughout New Zealand, Tamaki was ordained as a bishop during a ceremony performed by kaumātua and Destiny Pastor, Manuel Renata, on 18 June 2005. and its rhetoric has sometimes alienated other churches that have different approaches to Christianity. In 2003, Tamaki, in what he described as a prophetic utterance, predicted that Destiny would be "ruling the nation" within five years.

Ministry

The church claims to provide not only biblical guidance and teaching but also a range of social services including budget advice, family and parenting advice, support for drug and alcohol abusers, anger management and resolution, provision of food and housing. Church services are energetic and have a Pentecostal worship style. The preaching and teaching is strongly conservative, literalist interpretation of Biblical teachings. Its membership is predominantly Māori and Polynesian, intergenerational, and from all levels of the socio-economic sections of New Zealand society. Religious expert Peter Lineham has said of the church's followers: "they stem from the endemic Māori struggle to find a secure space in Western capitalist society, although there are obviously huge differences between the rural Māori that Rātana reached out to and the urban Māori community that has flocked to Tamaki. The development of a socially and politically active Christianity was a logical response in both cases."

{| class="wikitable" border="1"

|Auckland - July 1998

|Whakatane - March 2001

|Tauranga - April 2001

|Nelson - June 2001

|Hamilton - June 2002

|Christchurch - April 2003

|Whangārei - June 2003

|Wellington - August 2003

|Wanganui - May 2004

|Taranaki

|Rotorua

|Brisbane

At its peak in 2003, Destiny Church had a network of 19 church branches throughout New Zealand, with a total membership in excess of 5,000. By June 2012 it had 11 remaining branches, with around 3000 regular attendees. In 2019, Brian Tamaki claimed the church had in excess of 6,000 members. However, in the 2018 census, just 1,772 gave their religion as "Destiny Church", less than did for the satirical Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (4248) and Jediism (20,409), and only slightly more than Zoroastrianism. Church branches have closed in Porirua (the second in Wellington, after Petone), Wanganui and Dunedin. By June 2013, Destiny Church Wanganui was no longer listed on the main church website. In addition, other branches such as Kaitaia, Ōpōtiki, Taumarunui, and Hawkes Bay had either closed down or merged with other church branches. Destiny Church has also expanded to Australia, with one branch formerly in Brisbane and a current one on the Gold Coast. , Destiny TV still operates as the video production arm of Destiny Church. Weekly Destiny TV programmes are available for streaming on Destiny Church's website.

Destiny School

The church also operates a composite school (catering for both primary and secondary students), known as Destiny School, which uses the Cambridge education system alongside the New Zealand curriculum.

History

Origins

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The Destiny Church movement was founded in 1998 from 20 members of Lake City Church in Rotorua, initially calling itself City Church Auckland. Destiny Church was founded by Brian Tamaki and his wife Hannah Tamaki, who continue to serve as Visionary and Senior Ministers of Destiny Church. In his autobiography Tamaki described meeting Long, "my spiritual father", in 2002. Historian Peter Lineham has compared Destiny Church's liturgy progression away from orthodox Christianity to the late 1920s Ratana movement's divergence and eventual excommunication. Lineham also notes the usages of the historic and strong belief within Christianity in Māoridom to promote his reach and teachings.