“Two by Twos” by someone who grew up and out of the movement.

“Two by Twos”= “the friends”= “The Truth”= “The Way”= “The Gospel”= “The Meetings”= “Cooneyites”= “Christian Conventions”

Dialogue Ireland has been approached by a person who grew up in the “Two by Twos” and has requested our assistance to alert the public to the controlling nature of the group and issues of abuse and the violation of Human Rights. Naturally we want to protect their confidentiality and so we invite you to post your experiences in our comment section again without fear of your anonymity being compromised.

We also offer the members of this group who do access the internet the full right of reply either in regard to correcting any factual error or permission to post a refutation without censorship.
I was born into “the meetings”, a home churching group which was founded by William Irvine in 1897 in Tipperary.  We referred to ourselves as “the friends” and to our group as “The Truth”, “The Way”, “The Gospel” and “The Meetings”. Outsiders name us “Cooneyites” although that is a tiny faction that broke away from our group. DI Moderation: Update and amending of the text: I am afraid this tiny faction did not break away from the group but Cooney was excommunicated in 1928 and a substantial number remained loyal to Cooney resulting in a breakaway faction. This group has now dwindled to a tiny faction. Irvine Grey.

Other names for the group include “Christian Conventions” and “Two by Twos”. The group has no official name and no official church buildings. They have meetings within members’ homes instead. Members refer to each other as “the friends” and to their preachers as “workers”. The workers travel about in celibate pairs based on a misunderstanding of Matthew 10:8-10. The friends insist that they are “in” the world but not “off” the world.

I understand that to outsiders members seem like quaint, peaceable group of Protestants who dress a little “old-fashioned” and whom do not own TVs. To an extent that is true, but there is a darker side to the group. Members are deliberately kept in the dark regarding the beginnings of the group and child sex abuse incidents amongst their preachers. Members may not challenge the workers- if they do they face excommunication. The workers slander other preachers and churches as “greedy” and “false”. Members are afraid to leave the group as they are trained to believe that if they leave they will go to hell. If a member does leave, that person becomes subject to gossip and slander. To leave the meetings is very difficult because members don’t mix with outsiders. Often all of their family, relations and most of their friends are in the meetings so to leave the meetings means breaking close bonds with their community. Members who date an “outsider” get threatened with excommunication.

I was taught from an early age that we were the only true church founded by Jesus. All the other churches were false churches whose preachers were “false hirelings”, who were only interested in the money and considered only worthy of the workers’ scorn. Our ministers, however, cared for us. They didn’t have a salary unlike those false hirelings or expect the payment of tithes. They even stayed with us in our homes and this too was another example of their genuine interest in us. Not only that but our ministers (or “workers” as we called them) were personally chosen by God! Everything they preached came direct from the Lord!  I was often reminded that while my Catholic neighbours were decent people, they did not know the true gospel and therefore were to be pitied.

Even though “outsiders” are considered “lost”, the friends are commanded to never tell outsiders about “the Gospel” and to never approach an outsider about the group. The outsider must approach a member about their faith or attend a gospel meeting (a “mission”). When an outsider asks a member about their faith members are expected to introduce them to the workers because the gospel must be heard from the workers themselves. If after meeting the workers an outsider continues to take interest in the meetings, the workers give that person one-to-one bible studies. Interested outsiders are only gradually taught the group doctrines and only after a period of time are invited to private church events.  The outsider will then be invited to attend a convention during which he/she will be shown about only by the workers and introduced to a few of the more “hearty” friends.  Although most of the workers deny the trinity (many say that Jesus was merely a man who became without sin through obedience to the law and lived as an example how to live, with the workers following on this example for the rest to copy), they will never admit that to an outsider. If an outsider stops attending gospel meetings, he/she is considered to be “unwilling” to “accept the Truth”.

The workers travel about a designated region in pairs. An older brother worker is paired up with a younger brother, an older sister worker is paired up with a younger sister worker.  They cannot marry, do not work and instead rely on money donations from the friends. They also expect the friends to host them, do their laundry, cook meals for them for times that suit them and let them use their cars. People often give them spare house keys to come and go as they wish.  To have the workers staying is perceived to be a great honour. When they are staying they often spend long periods in their bedrooms, during which the family members are expected to be quiet in their own home for the workers. People keep notes from worker sermons and value them as equal to the bible. Photos of the workers are kept in photo albums, in bedrooms, in bibles and publicly displayed alongside photos of family members. The workers always sit separately from everyone else during convention meals and meetings, as though they are too holy to sit beside the friends. At conventions they are always served first and fed better than everyone else. Little children are expected to give the workers hugs, even the workers they are unfamiliar with. Basically, people revere the workers to the point of worship.

As the workers are believed to be “the Word made flesh” it is not permitted to question a worker. The workers say that members should be like little children in all things- and that includes not asking questions (those who do ask questions or bring up an issue, have a “poor spirit” and are made to feel that the real issue is with them, not the group). The workers decide who can join the group and who cannot, they can excommunicate someone to hell. They say they have sacrificed their career and possessions along the chance of marriage and family for the sake of the friends, with the implication that the friends therefore “owe” their salvation to the workers.

The workers are very controlling of the friends. For an example: they do not want the friends to let their children play with outsiders, as outsiders will have a poor influence on the children. One of the ways workers control people is through surprise visits, meaning they can catch people out if they are doing something forbidden. Some workers just walk around the back of the house and walk right in the back door.

In the meetings there is an us versus “the World” attitude; the World being anything forbidden by the workers: visiting the cinema, having a TV, women wearing trousers, attending another church, owning Christian literature other than the KJV bible, attending the theatre, dating an outsider, partaking in school plays, taking part in sporting events, having Christmas trees, letting children mix with outsider children. Possessing a radio is frowned upon. Having a traditional wedding dress was forbidden until the late 1980’s with women being expected to wear a regular Sunday outfit on their wedding. For a long time wedding rings were once not permitted and any girl or woman who “professed” (ie. joined the group) had to wear black stockings and their hair up in a bun. In some areas, higher level education and Internet use used to be discouraged. Some secretly have TVs in their attics. Most teenagers now watch TV online – while feeling superior to outsiders with their “sinful” TVs.

Females are not allowed wear trousers, make-up, jewellery or cut their hair short, although this is now slowly changing. Dress is a salvation to those within the meetings; the woman who takes to wearing trousers is judged to be “rebellious”, considered destined for hell and subject to gossip and worker visits. The workers often give accounts of those who let their daughters wear trousers and later regretted it when their daughter left “the Truth” and became involved in “a life of sin” all because of the trousers. The idea is that all teenage girls and women should dress like the sisters workers.

The workers often warn against leaving the group. The stories the workers give about those who left the meetings were apparently “true” incidents of people who left the group “for the love of the world” or out of “bitterness”. These rebellious people always died tragically, regretting their mistake but realising it was “too late” for them to return to the fold, and to God. Having family members leave the group is considered a great shame. If someone leaves the group, people will suddenly stop speaking of that person in public. Family members are urged to put pressure on that person to return to the meetings. If a spouse leaves the group, the partner remaining in the group is glorified for suffering so and is encouraged by the workers to withdraw affection until their partner returns to the meetings. Children with a parent who is not professing are considered to be from a “divided home” and there is a stigma attached to coming from a divided home.

Even for those in the meetings, there is no guarantee of salvation. For salvation one must hear the gospel from the workers, join the group and obey the workers. As a result there is an atmosphere of fear of failing.  Once a child born into the meetings reaches his/her teens, he/she is expected to join the group. Relations, family members and peers put pressure on teenagers to profess because it is believed that if he/she does not join the group, he/she will die and go to hell. I had no desire to profess but for a long time feared I would go to hell if I died before professing. In my teens, I became so convinced that God would kill me in the night and send me to hell that I would try not to sleep during the night and get night time panic attacks.

As many teenagers are pushed into the group against their wishes in the early teens, most teenagers in the group live a double life; wearing makeup and trousers to university and then long skirts and no makeup when in the presence of the workers, nightclubbing on Saturday nights and then turning up for the Sunday morning meeting  few hours later. Others turn to drugs and alcohol once they go to university and are able to escape the direct influence of the workers.

There are cases of workers and elders abusing children in a sexual manner. Although Noel Tanner is the only an Irish worker to be convicted for abusing young boys, there are others. A Cork worker was removed from “the work” in 2006 for taking advantage of a teenage boy in France but was never reported to the police. There are rumours of other Irish workers being involved in child sex abuse. To date fifteen workers and professing friends have been convicted for child sex abuse. http://www.wingsfortruth.info/convicted.htm

I was taught that that the meetings was the only true church, that it was founded personally by Jesus “on the shores of Galilee”.  To find out years later online that the meetings was actually started by a man just over a century ago was a shock. It really hurt to discover that I had been lied to by my older family members and by the workers.

I want those still inside the group to know that they can leave the group and not go to hell. I want them to know clothing is not a salvation issue. I want them to know that other churches are not evil. I want the friends to be free. There will be some who will read this and label me as “bitter” or dismiss me as having “nerve problems” but all I feel is sorrow for those still in bondage. In leaving the meetings, I did not “lose out”- I gained so much.

If you have any information on the meetings that you wish to pass on please contact us in the strictest of confidence @ info@dialogueireland.ie (Please note this email address was incorrect and has been fixed : 1 May 2023)

Someone who is studying this group in great detail is:  http://irvinegrey.com/ (This website is no longer accessible but the Internet Archive have copies from 2013 and 2019)