Update on the Two by Twos

Bronwyn Rideout - 26 May 2025

In August of 2023, I wrote two articles about the Two-by-Twos (TBT), a sect with “2” many names, and just as many problems. You can read Part 1 and Part 2 to catch up.

The TBT are a protestant, international home church movement founded in Ireland in 1897. They are called the TBT because their ministers, same-sex pairs of unmarried men or women, live amongst the members of their church for weeks or months at a time. The group is incredibly secretive, with no official headquarters or published texts. Life within the TBT is described as restrictive, with minimal access to media, but some ex-members have reported having more contemporary upbringings, which included public school, sports, access to the internet, and greater choice in clothing.

However, we wouldn’t be talking about the TBT if they were benign (although, who am I kidding. I probably would…). As I outline in my series, the secretive nature of the TBT runs deep, with multiple cases of child and sexual abuse being covered up for decades. That is, until the late 2010s, when survivors and ex-members of the TBT started going public with their stories in Australia and New Zealand.

A lot has happened for the TBT since that 2023 article.

The primary catalyst for everything that has happened to the TBT since 2023 was the 2022 death of Dean Bruer, an overseer who had served as a worker in 22 states and territories, as well as seven countries, since 1976.

Dean Bruer

Rebecca Boone, writing for the Associated Press, reported that Bruer died in an Oregon hotel room in June 2022, but it wasn’t until 9 months later in early 2023, when it was revealed to members that Bruer’s laptop contained evidence of abuse, including rape, against underaged victims. The TBT attempted to deal with the issue internally, until pressure from survivors forced them to hand the laptop over to local detectives. However, the computer was found to have been tampered with. Since Bruer’s phone had not been handed over with the laptop, the case was closed as there was no evidence that any crime had happened in that jurisdiction. Victims then continued to establish a hotline, website, and social media page for survivors, which quickly caught national and international attention.

Bruer, it was later confirmed, had attended conventions in New Zealand in the 1970s, and as a speaker in 2007 and 2016; the current leadership in NZ was apparently not aware of any victims of Bruer in this country. Conventions are massive gatherings of church members that occur each summer, and for many they provide an opportunity for courting and to meet other TBT families. Conventions occur on property owned by TBT members, and in NZ take place in Pukekohe, Ngaere, Masterton, and South Canterbury. After the exposure of Bruer in the US, many TBT families withdrew support for the conventions (and use of their property for conventions) when it was revealed that some alleged and proven abusers would be attending.

In January 2024, the BBC released the findings of its investigation into claims of child sexual abuse in the TBT. Victims’ stories reveal that ministers facing accusations were being relocated internationally (i.e. from Canada to the US), giving the ministers a fresh start and leaving survivors with nothing. The BBC would later release a six-part radio mini-series called Servants and Saints on the subject of the TBT.

In February 2024, the FBI announced that it was seeking information on the TBT in the United States, including from victims or anyone else with knowledge of abuse that occurred within the sect. The FBI investigation resulted in many New Zealand victims coming forward. Jillian Hishon, who operates a hotline for victims of the sect, told Amy Williams of RNZ that 20% of the 140 perpetrators named to the hotline by victims were in NZ; at the time of the April 2024 RNZ article, around 6 were under investigation by NZ Police. The TBT’s spokesperson in NZ, Wayne Dean, said he only knew of one case being investigated, although he did know of 14 cases where alleged offenders were stood down from attending meetings. However he claimed that the sect had rigorous policies regarding risk management, and a code of conduct for ministers. Williams’ article also revealed the current state of the organisation, with 2500 members across NZ and 50-60 leaders who travelled between the multiple families.

Sinead Gill of The Press spoke to 5 ex-TBT members from Canterbury and the Waikato about their experiences, and of the abuse they suffered growing up in the cult. The NZ TBT overseers made efforts to address historical complaints, but survivors felt that the group’s response, which included a website, fell far short of what was needed. As the convention season started, ex-members reached out to various venues not owned by TBT associates with an email campaign notifying them of the recent accusations against the TBT. The TBT do not book events under their own name, but as a “Christian Fellowship Group”. This email campaign has had a few successes, as a couple of venues did cancel the bookings.

By August 2024, 17 charges were laid against a Northland man for historical sex offending that spanned three decades and 4 victims. By September, the number of charges increased to 55, and the number of victims to 6. However, at the age of 79, the man’s poor health often kept him out of court. He was later named as William Easton, after he pleaded guilty to 55 charges committed against young boys. Easton had only been part of the TBT leadership from 1966 until he was removed in 1976; he had been banned from attending the annual convention in Pukekohe since the 1970s, but no reason had been given. Still, he allegedly has a reputation as a predator - but despite this, he continued to attend meetings until 2023. Easton would be sentenced to 13 years in prison in December 2024. Not long after the DeCult conference (which included a talk by former TBT member Laura McConnell Conti), a second TBT minister appeared in Whangārei District Court on two decades’ worth of historical sex crimes against pre-teen and teen boys. This minister pleaded not guilty.

One year after initiating the probe, the FBI finally enlisted the NZ Police in its global investigation, and calls for current and former members to report child abuse began anew. As of April, the call has resulted in 27 New Zealand-based people reporting sexual abuse, and several new criminal investigations; in at least 2 cases, the offenders have already been convicted.

Soon after this call, it emerged that National Party MP for Ilam Hamish Campbell was associated with the TBT through his family.

Hamish Campbell

While initial reports had him distancing himself from the group by claiming that he had socially liberal views and was a scientist, he was nevertheless sympathetic with the broader aims of the organisation to live the best way possible. Insiders told RNZ that Campbell was born into the group and still attended meetings; Campbell did not respond to direct questions about his current status with the group, and whether he hosted meetings in his own home. He eventually came under fire for downplaying his role when he finally acknowledged that he was a member of the TBT and had hosted meetings in his home. Several sources, speaking to RNZ and other outlets, claimed that Campbell is an elder, but Campbell himself claimed to have no knowledge of historical allegations. This is despite issues with the church in the Christchurch region, which are discussed in Part 2 of my original series, having been profiled in local media. For his part, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has publicly been uninterested in pursuing the matter with MP Campbell.

More recently, former members have revealed some of the financial wheeling and dealing that fund the work of the travelling workers. Some claim that workers/ministers may collect hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, tax-free, through gifts made by members - accusations that echo what was reported in Australia, and discussed in my previous articles.

As more survivors come forward and criminal investigations get underway, the TBT will need to relinquish more and more of their secrets. Given the international movement of the workers/ministers, there is the possibility of future revelations of New Zealanders causing harm overseas, and of local overseers enabling international workers to prey on their young New Zealand members.