The Atheist Church
POSTED BY: Magonsdaughter
UPDATED: Friday, December 12, 2025 16:53
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It started, as a number of the world's great religions have done, with a small group of friends and a persuasive idea: why should atheists miss out on all the good things churches have to offer? What would happen if they set up a "godless congregation" that met to celebrate life, with no hope of the hereafter?
Eight months after their first meeting in a deconsecrated church in north London, the founders of the Sunday Assembly have their answer: on Sunday they will announce the formation of satellite congregations in more than 20 cities across Britain and the world, the first wave of an expansion that they believe could see 40 atheist churches springing up by the year and as many as 1,000 worldwide within a decade.
From Glasgow, Leeds, Bristol and Dublin, to New York, San Diego and Vancouver, to Perth, Melbourne and Sydney, groups of non-believers will be getting together to form their own monthly Sunday Assemblies, with the movement's founders – the standup comedians Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans – visiting the fledgling congregations in what they are calling, only partly in jest, a "global missionary tour".
Though he always suspected he was not the only one to regret that his lack of faith excluded him from a church-style community, Jones admits to being a little bewildered by the speed and scale at which his idea has caught on. "When I had the idea for this, I always thought if it was something I would like to go to in London then it was something other people would like to go to in other places.
"The one thing that we didn't take into account was the power of the internet, and I think even more than that, the fact that there is obviously a latent need for this kind of thing. People have always congregated around things that they believe in. I think people are going to look back at the fact that it didn't happen as the oddity, not this part."
Satellite assemblies will agree to the central charter of Jones and Evans's original gathering – which still meets monthly in central London – and Jones expects them, initially at least, to stick to a similar format, in which a "host" leads several hundred congregants through songs, moments of contemplation and a sermon-like (but secular) talk.
"If we do it in London and there are 400 people who come, that's brilliant, but if we find a way to help hundreds of people to set one up then we can have a bigger impact than we could ever dream of," says Jones. Their vision, he says, is "a godless gathering in every town, city or village that wants one".
Stuart Balkham is one of a small group of Brighton unbelievers who next weekend will hold their inaugural assembly – the theme is beginnings – in a disused church in Hove.
He and his partner went to the London gathering where, he says, "there was just something that clicked". Part of the appeal was the style of non-worship: "It's unashamedly copying a familiar Church of England format, so it's part of the collective consciousness."
Balkham says he has envied churches the sense of community they can offer, and thinks atheists can learn from the social good that many churches do. "It's naive to deny that there's a lot of good that comes out of organised religion, and I think helping in the community is another thing that Sunday Assemblies should be aspiring to unashamedly copy."
Nick Spencer, research director of Theos, a thinktank looking at religion's role in society, says the growth of the movement may appear striking but it is not necessarily new. "This contemporary idea of people who are not religious but wanting to maintain some kind of church-like existence has got form. We've been here before."
Spencer, who will publish a book next year on the history of atheism, sees echoes of the late 19th century, when hundreds of "ethical unions" were founded in response to the growing atheism of the times. The movement, he says, similarlyNOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Hell, if I knew I wouldn't get lynched, I'd start one here...
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Sounds like it might be interesting.
I'd hope that it doesn't get as dogmatic as some atheist organizations that get all bent out of shape at any public reference to a deity.
"When your heart breaks, you choose what to fill the cracks with. Love or hate. But hate won't ever heal. Only love can do that."
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Originally posted by Geezer:
Sounds like it might be interesting.
I'd hope that it doesn't get as dogmatic as some atheist organizations that get all bent out of shape at any public reference to a deity.
"When your heart breaks, you choose what to fill the cracks with. Love or hate. But hate won't ever heal. Only love can do that."
Yeah. Hostile atheists really don't endear themselves to the public.
Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen
Resident USA Freedom Fundie
" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall
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Depends on the public. The US is a highly religious country. Atheism does not seem to be widely accepted or even tolerated in some parts.
I note that your presidents always have to be churchgoers, always have to mention god. It appears you would be unelectable if you declared yourself an atheist.
People who object to religion being institutionalised are critised for being fanatical, when in fact they would prefer religion to be a matter of private conscience rather than public policy.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:
It started, as a number of the world's great religions have done, with a small group of friends and a persuasive idea: why should atheists miss out on all the good things churches have to offer? What would happen if they set up a "godless congregation" that met to celebrate life, with no hope of the hereafter?
That is just completely missing the point.
As if it's not hard enough to get any credibility in terms of the science versus religion conversation, and having to deal with all the prejudice, they have to go off and make a church that's liable to get mistaken for the satanists. Fan-fuggin-tastic.
Well, they'll do what they want, and if they need a damned support group to deal with their own beliefs, that's their business. But I don't even know them and I'm disappointed in them. It stinks of a lack of conviction in the ideas.
The REASON atheists don't like CHURCHES is because even the good sides of a church like the charity and the help are based on POWER PLAYS and POLITICS and intolerant DOGMA against other belief systems. To create an atheist organization that recreates all those frustrating and oppressive dynamics is quite possibly among the most foolhardy ideas I've ever heard.
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^ What Bytemite said.
I agree that to base it on the church model is suspicious, a turn off.
I don't see how it would appeal to independant thinkers.
The only way such an organization would interest me is as a discussion
group. Everyone gets a chance to have their say.
======================
A man's gotta know his superstitions
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Yeah, but if ya gots kids....It's tough to raise them non-churchy when everything around you screams CHURCHY. I myself enjoy being a hermit but it's harder on a little one that don't understand.
Sometimes a little community isn't such a bad thing either, to pretend that people are actually capable of not being complete sucking voids for five minutes. It's a lie of course, but everyone likes to play pretend...
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Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
That is just completely missing the point.
As if it's not hard enough to get any credibility in terms of the science versus religion conversation, and having to deal with all the prejudice, they have to go off and make a church that's liable to get mistaken for the satanists. Fan-fuggin-tastic.
Well, they'll do what they want, and if they need a damned support group to deal with their own beliefs, that's their business. But I don't even know them and I'm disappointed in them. It stinks of a lack of conviction in the ideas.
The REASON atheists don't like CHURCHES is because even the good sides of a church like the charity and the help are based on POWER PLAYS and POLITICS and intolerant DOGMA against other belief systems. To create an atheist organization that recreates all those frustrating and oppressive dynamics is quite possibly among the most foolhardy ideas I've ever heard.
Not all aspects of all religions are fundamentally bad, nor are they all based upon power plays/dogma or intolerant dogma. I think you are lumping other a vast pantheon, if you'll excuse the pun, of beliefs and practises into one horrible lump.
Personally, i miss the community that comes with church going, and I miss the comfort of known rituals that accompany birth, relationships, death etc. I miss being able to pray when things suck, and knowing that other people are praying with you or for you as well. It's not about the big god on the other side listening, but more knowing that there is a group of people who are thinking collectively about you.
I also a lot of religions get behind a lot of causes that I personally support, especially those related to human rights issues. In fact, if it wasn't for the fact that I have no belief in a deity, I could be a very religious person.
I think what this movement is trying to do is recognise these good things about religion, and applying them in an atheist context. I think there is a danger that they could reproduce some of the dogma and rigidity that is inherent in some religious systems, I can agree with you there, but I understand where they are coming from.
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Originally posted by Wishimay:
Sometimes a little community isn't such a bad thing either, to pretend that people are actually capable of not being complete sucking voids for five minutes. It's a lie of course, but everyone likes to play pretend...
I believe more and more we are being conditioned to not be able to tolerate others, its part of being in societies that value the individual so completely.
if its all about ME, and my happiness, and everyone around me is alsp all about THEM and their individual happiness, then it stands to reason that we piss each other off quite easily.
I feel the passing of my parents generation, the depression/ww2 era people. what they lacked in imagination, they made up for in their capacity to think more widely than their own personal needs. Something went missing in generations after the war.
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