This article is about the sect founded by Edward Cooney. In some places, "Cooneyites" refers to Two by Twos, the church from which this sect split in 1928.
The Cooneyites are a Protestant sect which split from the nameless church commonly known as Two by Twos; the church was originally called "the Tramps" or "the Go-Preachers" founded by William Irvine, often referred to today as "The Truth" or, confusingly, "Cooneyites". The term "Cooneyites" prior to 1928 refers to the group described under Two by Twos. After that time, followers who were expelled from the Two by Twos along with Edward Cooney are called "Cooneyites". In some areas, the Two by Two church, which has gone under various labels, has continued to be labeled as "Cooneyite" by outsiders up to the present. Both the Cooneyites and the Two by Twos reject the term "Cooneyite".
Edward Cooney was a noted preacher during the 1890s and early 20th century. He joined William Irvine's new movement as an itinerant evangelist. He became increasingly critical of the church's moves towards institutionalization, and was expelled in 1928, along with those who agreed with him. They formed a loose fellowship which continues to the present.
History and development
The original group was founded by William Irvine, in Ireland in 1897. An independent evangelist, Edward Cooney, came into contact with Irvine soon afterward, though he did not join the new church immediately.[1][2] In 1901,[3] Cooney relinquished his stake in his family business. He then donated £1,300 to Irvine's ministry, in fulfillment of the group's requirement to "sell all and give to the poor," and became an itinerant "tramp preacher." Cooney was noted as a powerful speaker, and was one of the most vocal of the early leaders. His name became linked to the group in the public mind.[4][5]
In the early years of the 20th century, Cooney's sermons were debated in the public and press, with frequent citations of aggressively provocative remarks: distinguished for its bitter hostility to all existing Churches, and to a regular paid ministry of any kind, reminding one not a little of the Plymouth Brethren on these and other points.[6] Cooney was revered by some and ridiculed by others.[7]
Later, after the group split between the followers of William Irvine, and the more numerous followers of various regional overseers, Cooney sided with the larger body, although he continued to maintain some communication with Irvine (as did other senior ministers). Instead of placing himself under a local overseer, or taking that position for himself, he continued to preach in different countries on a truly itinerant basis. He also increasingly criticized the hierarchical structure that had formed within the Two by Twos, its finances, its denial of its origins, and its having registered under a name ("The Testimony of Jesus") during WWI.[8][9]
Cooney was excommunicated from the Two by Twos in Ireland, at a leaders' meeting, on October 12, 1928.[10] This occurred because he refused to conform his preaching to adhere to the "Living Witness Doctrine" (which posits that faith comes from hearing the word spoken, and seeing the "gospel" physically lived, from the lips and life of a witness), and to cease preaching wherever he felt led to preach. Afterward, he continued to preach, and groups of his followers left, or were expelled from, the main group and continued in fellowship with him.[11]
Among those who were driven out along with Cooney were prominent Two by Two pioneers such as Tom Elliot and John and Sarah West who provided continuity for the new group. However, with Cooney evangelizing in other countries during the later 1930s, the Cooneyite sect experienced a period of decline in Ireland. Despite this, Cooney was steadfast in rejecting any semblance of the hierarchy and other characteristics he had refused to accept in the main Two by Two church. He emphasized this by proclaiming, "You are not joining anything." to proselytes.[12]
Cooney continued to win converts outside Ireland. Followers were not organized into anything beyond loose fellowships, in accord with the abhorrence of anything resembling hierarchy or organization. Some contacts were those among the Two by Twos who remembered his earlier work. Irvine Weir, one of the original Two by Two workers in North America, was excommunicated by George Walker (the head overseer in eastern North America) for breaking the ban on associating with Cooney. Others were expelled for the same reason.[13]
Cooney had wanted to end his days in his native Ireland. However, he also wished to impart a final doctrinal revelation which caused another divide among his followers there. He had come to the belief that God would grant another opportunity for repentance following death, and this caused a split within the group. Tired, ill and wishing to escape the uproar, he made a final trip to Australia, where he died in 1960.[14] Fred Wood assumed a quasi-leadership role following Cooney's death, traveling among Cooneyite gatherings around the world as a uniting figure and evangelist. After Wood's death in 1986, leadership, evangelistic outreach and ministry work were seen as the responsibility of lay members rather than hierarchical positions.[15]
Cooney's followers retain fond memories of him. Those who continue to follow his message are a small but still recognized sect under the name “Cooneyite” in the UK, having just over 200 members according to the 2001 UK Census.[16] According to Roberts (1990), Cooneyite remnants exist in various places around the world and continue to meet in homes for church meetings.[17] Notable areas include:
The driving force behind Edward Cooney's later preaching was a return to the original church's earlier, unstructured methods and teachings. This was one of the reasons for the schism.[19]
A distinctive feature is public baptisms by immersion, which led some observers to link them to the various Baptists and Anabaptists. This may, instead, derive from their interpretation of the methods used by John the Baptist, as recorded in the Gospels. Cooney himself was baptised and brought up in the Church of Ireland.[20]
Although members deny any name, the term "Cooneyites" is used to describe them by outsiders in recognition of Edward Cooney's role in the group's development.[21][22] Among themselves, members sometimes refer to their fellowship as the "Outcasts".[23]
Elements of anti-clericalism which were prominent in Edward Cooney's preaching have been retained.[24] The current group does not believe in church buildings and meets in homes. It has not registered under and rejects any name, though they are referred to by outsiders as "Cooneyites" and acknowledge Cooney himself.[25] The church does not hold formal conventions or have convention grounds, although it does hold occasional larger gatherings apart from the weekly home meetings. Because Cooney rejected the so-called "Living Witness" doctrine, they continue to reject that tenet. As to Christology, it seemingly continues along the original group's unitarian precepts, accepting the Father alone as God.[26] In organization, this group is much more loosely constituted, with all members being considered equals and the leading of “the spirit” being relied upon. They do not accept a separate class or hierarchy of ministers, workers or overseers, believing all members to be equal.[27] Elders oversee individual local meetings, which is the extent of any organization.[28][29]
↑ Calme-Griaule, Geneviève, ed. (2000). "Les Nouveaux mouvements religieux à l'heure de l'Internet". Cahiers de Littérature Orale. Paris, France: Centre de Recherche sur l’Oralité (47): 131. ISSN0396-891X.
County Fermanagh is one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the six counties of Northern Ireland.
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The Fifth Monarchists, or Fifth Monarchy Men, were a Protestant sect which advocated Millennialist views, active during the 1649 to 1660 Commonwealth of England. Named after a prophecy in the Book of Daniel that Four Monarchies would precede the Fifth or establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth, the group was one of a number of Nonconformist sects that emerged during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Perhaps its best known adherent was Major-General Thomas Harrison, executed in October 1660 as a regicide, while Oliver Cromwell was a sympathiser until 1653.
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Kilsyth is a town and civil parish in North Lanarkshire, roughly halfway between Glasgow and Stirling in Scotland. The estimated population is 10,380. The town is famous for the Battle of Kilsyth and the religious revivals of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The town now has links with Cumbernauld at one time being part of Cumbernauld and Kilsyth District Council. The towns also have the same members of parliament at Holyrood and Westminster.
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Two by Twos is one of the names used to denote an international, Christian home-based new religious movement that has its origins in Ireland at the end of the 19th century. Among members, the church is typically referred to as "The Truth" or "The Way." Those outside the church refer to it as "Two by Twos," "The Black Stockings," "No-name Church," "Cooneyites," "Workers and Friends," or "Christians Anonymous."
William Irvine, sometimes Irvin or Irwin in contemporary documents, was an evangelist from the late nineteenth century, and continuing through the first half of the twentieth century. He is regarded as the founder and early propagator of the Two by Twos movement. Rapid growth was experienced in its initial decades, and Irvine eventually came into conflict with the regional overseers whom he had appointed to administer the now worldwide religion. Irvine was excommunicated by the overseers in 1914 and eventually moved to Jerusalem, supported by loyalists who followed him out of the movement. He spent his remaining years writing apocalyptic and prophetic letters to his remaining followers around the world from Jerusalem, where he died in March 1947.
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Edward Cooney (1867–1960) was an Irish evangelist from the 1890s to the 1950s. Cooney was born in Enniskillen, Ireland to William R. Cooney, a wealthy local merchant. He was the third of eight children and joined the family business after finishing his schooling. He began combining his business travel with lay preaching around Ireland.
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References
Daniel, Kevin N. 1993. Reinventing the Truth: Historical Claims of One of the World's Largest Nameless Sects. Bend, Oregon: Research and Information Services, Inc. ISBN978-0-9639419-0-9
Fairweather, Eileen; Rosín McDonough; Melanie McFadyean. 1984. Only the Rivers Run Free: Northern Ireland: The Women's War. London, United Kingdom: Pluto Press. ISBN0-86104-668-4
Johnson, Benton, "Christians in Hiding: The 'No Name' Sect," published in M.J. Neitz and M.S. Goldman, Eds. 1995. Sex, Lies and Sanctity: Religion and Deviance in Contemporary North America, vol. 5. Greenwich, Connecticut: JAI Press. ISBN978-1-55938-904-4
Mac Annaidh, Séamus. 2008. "Edward Cooney's Family Background" in The Fermanagh Miscellany 2. Enniskillen, Northern Ireland: Davog Press, Fermanagh Authors' Association. ISBN978-1-907530-05-0
Melton, J. Gordon. 2003. "The Two-By-Two's" in Encyclopedia of American Religions. Seventh Edition. Farmington Hills, Michigan: The Gale Group, Inc. ISBN0-7876-6384-0
Nichols, Larry A.; George A. Mather; Alvin J. Schmidt; eds. 2006. Encyclopedic Dictionary of Cults, Sects, and World Religions Revised and updated edition. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan. ISBN978-0-310-23954-3
Parker, Doug and Helen. 1982. The Secret Sect. Sydney, Australia: Macarthur Press Pty. Ltd. ISBN0-9593398-0-9
Roberts, Patricia. 1990. The Life and Ministry of Edward Cooney. Enniskillen, Northern Ireland: William Trimble Ltd. ISBN0-9510109-4-8
Scrutator (March 1905). "A New Sect". Irish Presbyterian. Belfast, Ireland.
Walker, James K. 2007. The Concise Guide to Today's Religions and Spirituality. Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House Publishers. ISBN978-0-7369-2011-7
Roberts, Patricia, 1991, "Selected Letters, Hymns and Poems of Edward Cooney, 1867–1960" published by William Trimble, Ltd., Enniskillen, Northern Ireland.
Roberts, Patricia, 1997, "Selected Letters of Fred Wood 1890–1986" published by William Trimble, Ltd., Enniskillen, Northern Ireland.
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