Listen. Believe. Advocate.

About The Brave Truth

We are a group of people who are focused on protecting and supporting victims of child sexual abuse and sexual abuse within the church fellowship known as “The Truth” or the “2×2’s” (other names might include “the meetings”, “the way”, “the fellowship”, “friends & workers”, “the truth church”, “Christian Conventions”, “Christian Conventions of Victoria”, “Assemblies of Christians”, “Christian Missionaries Australia” – and sometimes confused with “Cooneyites” – established by Edward Cooney – who were an offshoot church from “The Truth” that was founded by William Irvine in 1897). The fellowship is listed under “The Non-denominational Christians (The Truth)” in their application (still pending) to The National Redress Scheme.

Our group – The Brave Truth – comprises current and former members of the fellowship.

For decades, perpetrators in the fellowship, including workers, elders, and friends, have been protected whilst victims have been shunned. The stories are heart-wrenching and hard to fathom. The crimes committed are simply evil. Many of the perpetrators, some despite being on sex offender registers, have been supported by workers and allowed to continue attending meetings and gatherings.

In many cases, victims have not been believed, have been shunned and treated appallingly.

THIS HAS TO STOP!  

Since March 2023, a massive crisis has been exposed within the fellowship in the USA and Canada, in relation to Child Sexual Abuse and Sexual Abuse that has now engulfed the church. This has angered members of the fellowship who have asked one simple question – ‘How can I trust Overseers and Workers ever again if they allow and enable innocent children to be violated in this way?’

The Overseers of the church fellowship in Australia and New Zealand have belatedly responded. They agree that:

“There is no place for people who have harmed children in our meetings and conventions: we ask any individual with a history of causing harm, or with allegations, or convictions not to attend.  This includes public gospel meetings.”

Malcolm Clapham, Graeme Dalton, Wayne Dean, Trevor Joll, Alan Mitchell and Alan Richardson – 1^st July 2023.

Despite this recent written statement:

• A Child Safety Policy and Worker Code of Conduct has not been rolled out consistently in every State
• Worker Codes of Conduct mean little, unless they are signed and enforced
• Not all workers have current Working With Children Checks / Blue Cards issued by State authorities
• Some perpetrators (both convicted and charged) continue to attend church meetings and gatherings
• There has been a very belated attempt by the church to join the Federal Government’s National Redress Scheme which is designed to support victims. It is currently in a ‘pending’ status. The fellowship is the only church in Australia of any reasonable size to completely ignore this Government initiative for so long, sending a very poor message to victims-survivors. Ironically, a core part of the church’s doctrine and teaching is that it is the only right church in Australia with all other churches being false
• Some Overseers do not respond to emails/letters from victims of historical abuse within the church fellowship

History suggests that words on a statement written by workers do not always translate into meaningful action – they are merely words. They say, but they do not do. Recently (April 2025) it became apparent that the Overseers of Queensland, Victoria/Tasmania & Western Australia want no part in a Code of Conduct for Child Safety. Updates to the church website indicated that South Australia/Northern Territory, New South Wales/ACT & New Zealand have a Code of Conduct for their workers/ministers.

This website, plus a Confidential Hotline for reporting have been established to give survivors a place to be heard and advocated for.

In March 2024 the FBI commenced their own investigation into the fellowship, and continue to interview survivors and investigate alleged crimes, to this day.