Destiny Church (New Zealand)

Destiny Church (New Zealand)

Destiny Church is a Pentecostal fundamentalist Christian movement, headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand. The church advocates strict adherence to biblical morality, and is notable for its position against homosexuality, its patriarchal views and for its calls for a return to biblical conservative family values and morals. It also teaches prosperity theology.

The Destiny Church movement was founded in 1998 from 20 members of Lake City Church in Rotorua, initially calling itself City Church Auckland. It is led by Brian Tamaki, a charismatic orator whose actions and rhetoric have attracted criticism from the New Zealand media and other public figures. The church sponsored a nationwide rally against civil unions, issued a DVD asserting that the Government was "evil", ordained Tamaki as Bishop over all local Destiny churches, and held a gathering of 700 men who swore a "covenant" oath of allegiance, obedience, and deference to Tamaki. Destiny Church had a close relationship with New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta, USA, the church of Bishop Eddie Long, until at least September 2010. In his autobiography Tamaki described meeting Long, "my spiritual father", in 2002.