In Australia and New Zealand, Two by Twos is a small Christian sect that has been active for at least one hundred years. This organisation does not have an official nameLewis, K. (2004). The Church Without a Name. USA: Global Publishing.Steele, S. (2020) Two by Twos / The Truth. Let’s Talk About Sects. [Podcast]. Available at: https://www.ltaspod.com/26 Accessed 24 June 2025 but is referred to as ‘The Truth’, ‘The Way,’The Brave Truth, Australia and New Zealand. (2025) ‘About The Brave Truth’. Available at: https://thebravetruthaunz.org/ (Accessed 26 June 2025) ‘Two by Twos’,Jolly, N. (2020) ‘Woman recounts life raised in secret Australian religious sect’, News.com.au, February 8. Available at: https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/true-stories/woman-recounts-life-raised-in-secret-australian-religious-sect/news-story/6c7f509e8a16c1a1264c0200e2bafb8c (Accessed 24 June 2025) ‘2x2’,Williams, A. (2024). ‘'The Truth' 2x2 religious sect confirms police investigation,’ RNZ, 26 April. Available at: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/515215/the-truth-2x2-religious-sect-confirms-police-investigation (Accessed 26 June 2025) ‘Truth 2x2’,McConnell-Conti, L. (2025). ‘Theological Whiplash with Alex’. Truth 2x2 Cult Kids. [Podcast]. Available at: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/theological-whiplash-with-alex/id1788240941?i=1000708560468 (Accessed 24 June 2025) ‘The Church with No Name’, ‘Cooneyites’, ‘Friends and Workers’, ‘The Meetings’, ‘The Fellowship’, ‘Christian Conventions’, ‘Assemblies of Christians’, and ‘Christian Missionaries Australia’, Non Denominational Christianshttps://connectonline.asic.gov.au/RegistrySearch/faces/landing/panelSearch.jspx?searchTab=search&searchText=Non+denominational+christians&searchType=OrgAndBusNm amongst a multiplicity of names.
Two by Twos was founded in Ireland by William Irvine in 1897Kropp-Ehrig, C. (2022). Preserving the Truth: The Church without a Name and Its Founder, William Irvine. Dallas, Texas: Clarion Call Publishing. and the first known reference to the organisation in Australia is in 1907. Practices slightly differ by region, but they have an overarching organisational structure (see Structure and Finances).
The Australasian Two by Twos largely follow the international doctrine, which is a conservative interpretation of the King James Bible.Coleman, E. (2015). Cult to Christ: The Church With No Name and the Legacy of the Living Witness Doctrine. Australia: Adeline Press. They are nontrinitarian and they have almost no written records, instead preferring to transmit their beliefs orally through itinerant ministers known as ‘Workers’.Parker, D & Parker, H (1982). The Secret Sect. Sydney, Australia: Macarthur Press. They have no official church property or buildings, instead meeting in members’ houses. While the organisation doesn’t officially hold property, some members hold property which is used for church gatherings, including yearly conventions. The church is made up of a collection of family groups with very little outside recruitment.
While it professes to reject formal structureJohnston, C. (2013). ‘Friends and enemies, truth and lies’, The Age, 23 September. Available at: https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/friends-and-enemies-truth-and-lies-20130922-2u7t4.html (Accessed 24 June 2025) the organisation has been registered previously in Australia for official purposes under a few names including ‘Christian Conventions of Victoria’,Research and Information Services, Inc. ‘A Registered Charity (Victoria)’. Available at: https://workersect.org/2x205rc.html (Accessed 24 June 2025) ‘Christian Assemblies of Australia’, and variations on ‘United Christian Conventions’ (eg. ‘The United Christian Conventions of Australasia and New Zealand’). In New Zealand the organisation was previously registered under ‘United Christian Assemblies’ and ‘Christian Conventions’. In its application to the National Redress Scheme (which came out of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Australia), the organisation applied under the name 'The Non-denominational Christians (The Truth)' but this name is otherwise not officially registered anywhere. The organisation is currently not registered as a company or charity anywhere in New Zealand.Williams, A. (2025). ‘Former members of secretive sect Two by Twos claim leaders receive gifts of cash,’ RNZ, 14 May. Available at: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/560893/former-members-of-secretive-sect-two-by-twos-claim-leaders-receive-gifts-of-cash (Accessed 27 June 2025)
Refer to Two by Twos for further background on history, doctrine and structure.
Structure and Finances
Structure Despite denying any formal structure, Two by Twos in Australia and New Zealand follow a model that was established by founder William Irvine in 1908 and is known worldwide. Each country is divided into regions, usually whole states, which are ruled by a male Overseer. Regions are broken into fields which are assigned to a pair of ministers called ‘Workers’ (which is the source of the name ‘Two by Twos’). Fields are then broken up into ‘house churches’, which means a residence where the oldest male has been assigned the title of ‘Elder’, and he holds meetings within his home. The house churches consist of up to thirty-five members or ‘Friends’.Sparkes, L. (2019). ‘The Truth Hurts’, 60 Minutes, 21 April. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkDfxQbC_Xs and https://www.9now.com.au/60-minutes/2019/episode-12 (Accessed 20 June 2025)Loftus, T. (2024). ‘Survivors of secretive Two by Two sect waiting to access National Redress Scheme’, ABC News, 22 May. Available at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-22/two-by-two-sect-survivors-waiting-for-compensation/103868134 (Accessed 24 June 2025) Workers are assigned to their fields annually and move between different cities and countries. Workers are celibate and itinerant; they travel around staying at different members’ homes.
The Let’s Talk About Sects podcast states that an Overseer has “absolute authority” over those below him in the structure and that “members may follow his commands as if they were God’s commands.”
Journalist Chris Johnston gave the following description of the structure of the cult to Let’s Talk About Sects: “Sort of state by state. So it's usually one man and that man will have a male assistant, like a PA who, for example, in Queensland at the moment, the PA who's just a helper, like emails, letters, just shitkicker basically, but he's also very influential and powerful. So there's leader, leader’s helper, and then there's the trustees, the guys who hold the money and there might be one, two or three of those and then there'll be a sort of hierarchy down through the ranks of the sect and through a sort of familial type rank as well. So certain families can become very powerful.”
Members of the Australasian Two by Twos are typically kept ignorant of the structure of the organisation.
In 2023 a community association was registered in South Australia (see ASIC here)
Finances
The financial structure of the Australasian Two by Twos is opaque but there is evidence that the organisation has considerable assets. Workers receive cash donations in envelopes from members (or ‘Friends’) and the organisation has received large bequests. In 1994 former overseer of Victoria John “Evan” Jones stated that the organisation was “financially well-off” and that money was kept in a trust fund controlled by three elders. In 2013 anonymous sources told Australian journalist Chris Johnston that the organisation was still “well-off” and that money was kept in private bank accounts. Johnston estimates that the assets are in the order of “multiple millions of dollars per state… and territory”. An anonymous former Worker from New Zealand said that senior Workers received cash donations of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year but were exempt from paying taxes. He stated that as the junior partner in a pair of Workers he was denied access to money and was forced to justify all expenditures to the senior Worker. An anonymous recent leaver from New Zealand stated that he believed the organisation had millions of dollars and wondered “are people actually being forced to do some pretty dodgy legal stuff just because the church refuses to have a bank account in its own name?" This person was concerned with the lack of transparency around money within the organisation.
ABC reported in January 2026 on the sale of Mudgee Convention Ground in NSW and lack of transparency around finances, organisational name and structures.
List of Overseers in Australia and New Zealand
The following is a list of known overseers in Australia and New Zealand. Names on the list that are not directly referenced come from this reference Kropp, C. (2019). ‘Divisions in the 2x2 Church’, TellingTheTruth.info, 13 March. Available at https://www.tellingthetruth.info/history_divisions/australia.php (Accessed 24 June 2025)
LocationYearName New South Wales1907-1961John Hardie
1961-1963Joe Williamson
1963-1994Gordon McNab
1994-1995Dan McNab
1995-2016Clyde McKay
2016 - unknownAlan Kitto /Allan Kitto
2024, 2025Graham Dalton The Brave Truth, Australia and New Zealand. (2025) ‘Update March 2025’. Available at: https://thebravetruthaunz.org/letter-from-the-overseers-to-australian-and-new-zealand-co-workers-elders-and-friends/ (Accessed 26 June 2025)2026 (to June)David SaundersSouth Australia1907-1922Adam Hutchison
1922-1941/44?Willie Hughes
1944-1964John Baartz
1964-1994Robert Barbour
1994-2009Stan Cornthwaite
2025Trevor Joll 2026 (to June)Graeme Dalton<tr>Tasmania1914-1922Adam Hutchison
1922-1938Sam Jones
1925 - unknown (now incorporated into Victoria)Chris Williams
Victoria and Tasmania1907-1909Adam Hutchison
1909-1913Wilson McClung
1913-1953Bill Carroll
1954-55Chris Williams
1957-85Willie Donaldson
1987-2001John "Evan" Jones
2001-2014John Robinson
2014-2018David Leitch
2018Jim McLean
2018 - unknownAllan Mitchell
2025 - Malcolm Clapham
Queensland1906-1924John Sullivan
1924-1959Thomas Turner
1959-1972Archie Turner
1972-2002Albert Barnes
2002-2014Ray Corbett
2014 - UnknownMalcolm Clapham
2025-Allan Mitchell
Western Australia1906-1924Tom Turner
1924-28Ted Terry
1928-38Nestor Ferguson
1939Willie Phyn
1939-1946Sam Jones
1950-1955Walter Schloss
1956-1964Bert Cameron
1964-1979Clem Geue
1979-2007/08Bill McCourt
2009-2017Peter Doecke
2018 - unknownGraham Snow
2024 - Stephen Thorpe
New Zealand2025Wayne Dean2026Trevor Joll
Demographics
Two by Twos doesn’t have official records of member numbers, but estimates have been made. The increasing number of people who are leaving suggest that the overall number of members is significantly reducing.
In 2013 Chris Johnston, reporting for The Age, estimated that there were 2,000 members in Victoria. In 2020 former member Laura McConnell-Conti estimated that there were 2,000 members in Victoria and 4,000 each in Queensland and New South Wales. In 2024 Tobi Loftus, reporting for the ABC, estimated that there were 8,000 members across Australia. In 2024 Amy Williams reported for RNZ that there are 2,500 members in New Zealand and 60 ministers.
Historically Two by Twos may have had much larger numbers in Australia. Former member Laura McConnell-Conti estimated that there were 50,000 members across Australia in the 1980's and 1990's.Ross, E. (2024) ‘Age 19, Laura McConnell escaped one of Australia's most secretive cults.’, Mamamia, February 16. Available at: https://www.mamamia.com.au/the-truth-laura-mcconnell/ (Accessed 23 February 2026)
Two by Twos congregations are typically concentrated in isolated rural farming communities and regional areas, but they can also be found in cities. In Australia they have been reported as being in Wodonga, Shepparton, Launceston, rural Tasmania, and Pheasant Creek, but this is not an exhaustive list. They are active in every state of Australia.