Although these comedic co-founders admit they nicked the best components of church like group singing, interesting talks and community building, Jones articulates a unique vision for the Sunday Assembly:
“This isn’t about making people into atheists or preaching against God. Rather, we seek to provide the human and social needs for a lot of people who don’t believe in God but want to congregate and share similar positive values.”
In the past six months, this community has grown from 250 to 600 attendees, and they now meet in a 1,200 seat arena. This growth coincides with the latest census, which ranked England and Wales as two of the most unreligious nations in the western world with 14.1 million people declaring themselves to be of “no religion”.
They now hope to expand into the United States, hoping to found 40 atheist churches.
Of course, the Parish Councils will soon follow. And church fights. And bickering over the Statement of Unbelief. Forty churches? Heck, there will soon be 120. Much smaller ones.
– O’Leary (back)