Editing Friends of Man (section)

== History ==
The group began when Freytag started publishing his own personal views and sent ''The Message of Laodicea'' (''Le Message de Laodicée''), in which he claimed he was the legitimate successor of [[Charles Taze Russell]], to the [[Bible Student movement|Bible Students]]. Therefore, he was ousted from the Watch Tower Society by [[Joseph Franklin Rutherford|Joseph Rutherford]] in 1920.<ref>{{cite web |title=La Chiesa del Regno di Dio |url=http://www.cesnur.org/religioni_italia/t/testimoni_geova_03.htm |publisher=[[Center for Studies on New Religions]] | language=it |access-date=28 June 2009}}</ref> He published two journals, the monthly ''The Monitor of the Reign of Justice'' (''Le Moniteur du Règne de Justice'') and the weekly ''Newspaper for All'' (''Le Journal pour tous'').

In Italy, the first community was founded in 1946 in [[Turin]] by Sebastiano Chiardola.<ref>{{cite web |title=Freytag, Alexander F. L. (1870–1947) e Chiesa del Regno di Dio |url=http://www.eresie.it/it/id770.htm |publisher=Eresie |language=it |access-date=2009-06-28 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080221173353/http://www.eresie.it/it/id770.htm |archive-date=2008-02-21 }}</ref>

When Freytag died in 1947, one of his followers, Bernard Sayerce (1912–1963), a [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] schoolteacher, claimed he was his successor.{{citation needed|date=March 2022}} Almost all of the 900 French and Belgian assemblies joined this new group which had a peak of 9,700 members between 1958 and 1962.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Le non-conformisme sectaire en France. Problèmes de recherche |first=Jean |last=Séguy |journal=Revue de sociologie française |year=1965 |volume=6 |number=6–1 |page=45 |doi=10.2307/3319649 |jstor=3319649 |url=http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/rfsoc_0035-2969_1965_num_6_1_1837 |language=fr |access-date=28 June 2009}}</ref> In 1963, Lydie Sartre (1898–1972), who was named the "Dear Mom", then Joseph Neyrand (1927–1981) in 1971, replaced Sayerce as leaders of the movement, named "Amis sans frontières" in 1984.<ref>{{cite book |title=Des " sectes " dans la France contemporaine — 1905–2000 — Contestations ou innovations religieuses ? |first=Jean-Pierre |last=Chantin |publisher=Privat editions |place=Toulouse |year=2004 |pages=46, 47 |language=fr |isbn=2-7089-6855-6}}</ref>