In November the city of churches will add one more to its list — but its congregants won’t be bringing god with them.
The Sunday Assembly, an atheist congregation, opened its first Australian house of not-worshipping in Melbourne earlier this year. The brainchild of UK comedians Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans, it now has branches and prospective congregations across the UK and Ireland, in Texas, New York and Silicon Valley, and most recently in Australia.
“We’re a godless congregation that celebrates life for people who want to live better, help often and wonder more,” said Jones. “Our mission is a small one: to help everyone find and fulfil their full potential.”
Evans first wondered if there could ever be an “atheist church” when she stopped believing in god as a 17-year-old. “When I left the church I found it wasn’t god that I missed, but it was church,” she said. “I missed my friends, and I missed that camaraderie, and that feeling that every Sunday there was a place I could go to.”
The Sunday Assembly is attempting to give atheists and agnostics that place, and its popularity is growing by the day — pews are filling at a time when fewer than 15% of Australians are regular church-goers and “no religion” is one of the fastest-growing affiliations in the country.
Almost 100 non-believers of all ages gathered for a recent Sunday Assembly at South Melbourne Commons, where any criticism of religion or mention of god (or the lack thereof) was notably absent from proceedings.
“We’re not going to provide a platform for that,” said organiser Kathryn Murray. “We’re not going to provide a platform for people to get up and bag out on religion. We want to focus on life as this brilliant, fantastic thing that might never happen again. There might not be anything afterwards, so let’s party while we can.”
Hymns, accompanied by a live band, were sung with enthusiasm — I Can See Clearly Now by Johnny Nash, Weather with You by Crowded House and Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash.
Melbourne comedian and writer Catherine Deveny delivered her homily on the virtue of Winston Churchill’s edict, “if you’re going through hell, keep going”. And there were readings from Theodore Roosevelt’s “Citizens of the Republic” speech, among others.
All those who took the microphone spoke about the joy of human experience. It ended with a soon-bulging collection hat (for the cost of the hall) and morning tea.
Kate Taylor, who attended the gathering, grew up as a Catholic but now sees herself as a type of agnostic. For her, the Sunday Assembly strikes the right balance between atheist philosophy and church atmosphere. “I wouldn’t have come if this was just an atheist meeting,” she said. “I really like this. It’s like church, but without all the guilt and shame and persecution. They’ve taken all of the good stuff and left out the bad.”
But not everyone’s happy with the new church on the block.
According to Sanderson Jones, much of the criticism has come from fellow atheists. “You do get a lot of abuse, and we have found there are a lot of people getting upset at us,” he said. “There are a lot of militant, intolerant, fundamentalist atheists who say that the way that we don’t believe in god is not the right way to not believe in god, which is ridiculous.”
The Bible Society’s Sophie Timothy wrote that she genuinely had a good time when she attended a Sunday Assembly sermon in April, but that the group would not be sustainable in the long term as religious churches have been:
“The Christian church is a local expression of the body of Christ, not just a bunch of people with similar ideas.”
Several volunteers have put their hands up to run the Adelaide congregation, which is in the process of securing a venue for its gatherings. Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson was approached for comment.
Finally Atheism admitting that it a religious cult—If Atheists have such a problem with God why do they replicate and mimic Christian rituals? Sunday Assembly—clearly there is a recognition there for the need to worship—for Atheists–worshiping their own arrogance—so now we also have Atheism branching out into its own sects—the Sunday Assembly Atheism, the Dawkin’s Atheism, the I HATE EVERYONE Atheism—Denial of Someone Else’s Belief is also a Belief—how about Atheists put their swords down and start researching those black holes like those devoted Agnostics?
“The Christian church is a local expression of the body of Christ, not just a bunch of people with similar ideas.”
Well from my point of view, The Christian church is just a bunch of people with similar ideas, namely that it’s a local expression of the body of Christ.
The trouble with atheists is that they’re always talking about God. This might be a good way not to do that.
The Unitarian movement has embraced atheists alongside agnostics and believers of many shades among its diverse membership for decades.
SERENATOPIA:Retract your claws. There’s a completely logical reason why these people want to get together. It’s the same reason religious people want to get together. Man is, generally speaking, a herd animal. They feel more comfortable being with other people. This, despite being convinced they have a one on one relationship with their god.
FFS What is arrogant about non-believers? It is the religious who claim that man is made in their god’s image; it is the religious nutters who claim their own branch of belief to be superior to others. It is the religious who believe god listens to every word they utter. It is the religious who sodomise small children then claim that the Catholic church answers to an authority higher than we mere mortals. It is the religious who take it upon themselves to interfere in the lives of others, denying them the right to abortion, euthanasia, and having an obscenely powerful Canberra Christian Lobby group. It is the religious who demand that their children attend special schools. And it is the religious who bludge on the community by having their churches-and all their buildings, staff, etc being funded by the poor unfortunate tax-payer.
You shouldn’t kick the source of your funding by bitching about people who don’t believe in a god. Also, our Constitution states that Australians are free to worship the god of their choice; or to worship no God at all.