Atheist Sunday Assembly branches out in first wave of expansion

[cbayer]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/14/atheist-sunday-assembly-branches-out

London's godless congregation to launch satellite assemblies in other UK cities and as far afield as New York and Sydney
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Esther Addley
The Guardian, Friday 13 September 2013


Sanderson Jones (holding mic) and Pippa Evans (with guitar) with congregants at the Sunday Assembly in Islington, north London. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

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.

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[pscot]

1. Turning atheism into another sect

was probably inevitable, given the human need to belong to a group.

[cbayer]

3. Belonging to groups can be really nice.

People like to be a part of a community.

[pinto]

2. This made me think about community barn raisings, for some reason.

[cbayer]

4. Agree. We went to a party last night that was all boaters.

It's fun to exchange stories and experiences.

[rug]

5. A satellite network.

Where have we seen that before?

[PotatoChip]

6. Quite the hairdoo she's got there.