Nazarene Fellowship

Not to be confused with the Wesleyan Church of the Nazarene, or the German Nazarene movement of religious artists.

The Nazarene fellowship were an offshoot from Christadelphians from 1873–1881, led by Edward Turney (1820–1879) of Nottingham and David Handley (1822–1886) of Maldon. They were sometimes called "renunciationists" and their teaching called "free life" and "clean flesh". They separated over the atonement. The division was relatively short-lived, with most of the 200 people who had left returning within the next few years. Following his death in 1879, Turney's most active supporter, David Handley of Maldon, returned to the main grouping, and the group gradually died out. In the 1950s Ernest Brady revived Turney's cause and the name of the group.

In 1871, the year of the death of John Thomas in America, Robert Roberts was editor of The Christadelphian magazine in Birmingham, England. Perhaps second only in prominence to Roberts was a Nottingham businessman, Edward Turney. Turney was a prominent Christadelphian speaker at "fraternal gatherings", and editor of The Christadelphian Lamp (later renamed The Christian lamp).

The "Renunciationist controversy" began with the teaching of David Handley who first raised the idea that Christ was born with a "free life" - meaning that had he not submitted to his Father's will and death on the cross, he would still have been granted immortality, but renounced this of his own choice. Turney had in early 1873 published a booklet Diabolism which included the statement that "sin was an element of the flesh of the Son of God" but during the Spring of 1873 came to renounce this view and came to support and promote Handley's view in his magazine, then on Thursday 28 August 1873 as guest lecturer for the Birmingham Ecclesia, which met at Temperance Hall, Temple Street, Birmingham, forcefully taught these views at the large influential Birmingham Ecclesia. In response Roberts and the other "Arranging Brethren" of Temperance Hall called together the general membership of the Birmingham Ecclesia and invited them to declare their rejection of Turney and Handley's teachings. Turney's views were roundly rejected but not everyone at Birmingham was happy with the way in which it was done.

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