"For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."
Posted on 02/04/2013 9:53:31 AM PST by SeekAndFind
"I feel sorry for the church next door, waiting for their three people to trickle in," says Nick Julius, glancing at the small adjacent hall that will shortly be hosting its own gathering.
There are still 40 minutes before the Sunday Assembly, an atheist service run by two standup comedians, is due to begin, but a queue of eager congregants is already forming outside a grand but crumbling former church in Islington, north London, hands shoved deep into pockets against the cold.
Julius arrived an hour early, just to be sure of a place at the service, which is described by its organisers as "a godless congregation that meets … to hear great talks, sing songs and generally celebrate life". But why? "I came last time and really enjoyed it. It's got all the good things about church without the terrible dogma. I like the sense of community – and who doesn't enjoy a singsong?"
This is only the second time Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans have hosted the monthly event (motto: live better, help often, wonder more), and they admit to being a little overwhelmed by the enthusiasm with which the event has already been greeted.
More than 200 people came to the first event; today there are perhaps 300, with several dozen more carrying on a parallel discussion in a local pub. Inside the nave of the deconsecrated church, volunteers have been bunching chairs closer together, adding extra benches and children's seats in every scrap of space. It is not a problem most vicars struggle with on a Sunday morning.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Queen and Stevie Wonder instead of hymns; a science lecture instead of a sermon. Can church work without belief in God? Esther Addley joins 300 people who say it can
A PEEK INTO THE WORSHIP SERVICE FOR ATHEISTS:
The service opens with a song, led by Evans and an enthusiastic band at the front; instead of a hymn, however, it is “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen (”We’ve chosen something that allows hamming it up to the max”).
The service features a reading, a moment of reflective silence, even a collection to pay for the rental of the church, during which people are invited to turn in the pews and greet those sitting beside and behind them.
The plan in future is to engage members in community-based good works.
There is also a sermon, of sorts, on the day’s theme of “wonder”, which sees Dr Harry Cliff, a particle physicist from Cambridge, talking about Dirac’s equation predicting antimatter (”the most amazing theory in history”) and the enormous statistical odds against the universe existing in the first place.
The congregation then stands to sing Superstition by Stevie Wonder.
I believe in Jesus, but I was run out of my church (Catholic) by a bunch of socialist bishops who fell for Obama’s lies in 2008 and endorsed the biggest fraud in the history of America. Fortunately for the Catholic Church, whites like me are being replaced by illegal alien Catholics. Isn’t diversity great?
God made up atheism as a prank. It went out of control. Let those idiots read history what happened to hundreds of millions of people in godless countries like the Sovit Union, China, CUba, Campuchea, North Vietnam, North Korea, etc.
Given the state of the Anglican church these days, that statement may be true in more ways than the author intended.
Sorry bunch not inviting God to their party. They will moan and whine to find out they were invited to His but they refused. Eegads...
RE; , but I was run out of my church (Catholic) by a bunch of socialist bishops who fell for Obama’s lies in 2008
You ought to go to a parish whose priests are not socialist. There are LOTS of them in this country. Nearly HALF of the Catholics did not vote Obama.
Not much different from the last Methodist service I attended.
I really do not give a smelly Obama about athiests...since ‘twould seem that a great many of them currently have their heads up that very smelly Obama.
RE: Not much different from the last Methodist service I attended.
OK, you got me curious... what songs from which recording artist did you guys sing in that service? Was John Lennon’s “Imagine” part of the hymnal?
Don’t feel bad. I got run out of my church for standing up against a socialist ministry (pals of Obama).
Obama is an anti-Christ. Imagine what is going to happen to the people who followed Obama and not God.
:(
Superstition is an interesting choice.
Ironic that they can’t manage to have a service that concentrates on their beliefs without a little self-congratulatory mockery of those with whom they disagree. Don’t remember any similar songs in any Christian services I’ve attended.
I find myself to be more of an agnostic as I get older. That said, if I had to chose between belief on God vs belief that this time, despite every previous attempt in history, socialism will work, as I suspect a good part of this congregation believes, I’ll pick the God superstition over the socialism superstition every time.
Keep telling yourself that and maybe even you will believe it.
The Atheist’s Creed
Everything came out of Nothing from Nowhere for No Apparent Reason.
Life is a curious side-effect of an unknowing and uncaring Cosmos.
There is no External, Objective, Transcendent Truth. One must decide for himself what is right and what is wrong.
There is no life after death. When you die, you are just so much compost.
The best one can hope for is a life of self gratification, self aggrandizement, and a painless extinction.
Not that there’s much diff between Methodists and atheists now, which is why the UMC has lost like 60% of their memberhsip.
God works in miraculous ways. Mine is a clever God to be sure.
Get this. A growing group of “worshippers” are gathering for peacefull reflections, comradery and to organize good works for their community. They are supporting each other with the express intent of “not recognizing God”.
There is no foundation for which this building/organization will sustain a following. But I’d bet a dollar some of the “faithful” will find the roots of which they seek moral foundation to follow were planted thousands of years ago and is strong right next door.
At some point, leaders of the “faith” are going to have to set some rules, guidelines.... a list by which to judge themselves against. They have to know who amongst them is most righteous, right? What might that look like?....Don’t lie to members? Don’t steal from members? etc.
(A nod and a wink to you, Lord Jesus. Bravo.)
Wonder if they’re gonna sit there and mock the congregants of the Mosque that’ll probably open up next door soon.
>>Keep telling yourself that and maybe even you will believe it.<<
I do believe it...why should I remain in a church whose leaders are a bunch of gullible fools, falling for Obama’s lies about abortion and birth control in Obamacare? Obama LIED to Cardinal Dolan’s face, and still the Hispanic and leftist archbishops love the guy. I don’t know if Obama is the antiChrist, but I do know he’s a deceiver and a destroyer of traditional, religious values and institutions.
"For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."
Q and A for the intellectually minded atheist.
Q: What do we call time, one second before time began?
Atheist: uhhhh....
Christian: God
Q: What is there one inch beyond the end of the universe.
Atheist” ummmmmm......
Christian: God
Q: What will we call time, one second after time ends?
Atheist: errrrrr..
Christian: God
Next.....
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