Posted on 10/22/2013 7:51:32 PM PDT by marshmallow
A godless church may seem to some as an oxymoron, but it has become a reality as the oldest church in Leeds opens its doors for an atheist congregation.
The Sunday Assembly Leeds is a non-profit organisation which has chosen to put away religion but still keep the traditions of song and sermons.
Originally starting in London last January it was created by two comedians, Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans.
After success in the capital they have now launched their movement worldwide in their ‘40 days and 40 nights tour’, which will be opening assemblies in the UK, including Leeds, Ireland, US, Canada and Australia. Michelle Beckett, 40 from Harrogate is one of the Leeds’ assembly organisers. She said: “We have had a huge response so far. We have already had over 100 people sign up for the assembly. We’d like to take all of the good bits out of church, and leave the religious stuff behind.
“It’s a shame that people who have no faith do not know the feeling of belonging that comes with religion, that’s why we are doing this.”
She added: “The structure is the same as church, you will have talks, songs and a sense of community. The London assemblies have now started to sprout charity works and community book groups.”
Without the use of religious hymns and a religious text, the group uses inspirational talks and pop songs, such as Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now and Monty Python’s Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.
The congregation will start at St John the Evangelist church Tuesday, October 29 and people of any belief or background can join in. The congregation in Leeds will meet once a month after the initial launch, meeting every month on a Sunday.
St John the Evangelist Church is.....
(Excerpt) Read more at yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk ...
Sure - what is this eternal life stuff next to self-esteem, anyway?
Somebody is really, really, really missing the point.
Will they call it an ‘Olestra mass?’
This is basically what civic organizations do.
They’d better watch out. Someday, when they least expect it, the Holy Spirit might show up.
They have DEFILED this church! May they ALL be judged by the Almighty Lord.
Note: If your church is being used as a den of hatred against the Holy Father, it is no church.
If that church has a neck, God is carving a millstone.
Atheism is a religion, they just worship the null and void. They have their church leaders and hierarchy and hold conclaves to set policy.
She had a cable show in the late '80's that she hosted with her daughter and son-in-law. I was always struck by the abject vehemence in which she espoused her atheistic diatribes, castigating God and his flock of minions, any and all manner of organized religion, in rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth spasms of vituperative hatred. Watching her on her show at the way she'd go berserk just mentioning God's name as a source of freak entertainment, she always struck me as being incredibly agitated, had always wished I could tell her that she had a sense of overwrought zealousness when speaking of God that was every bit reminiscent of the religious fervor I'd say on Sunday religious programs.
What I saw in Madalyn Murray O'Hair on her show every week, was not the woman of principle who sought empiricism as the final word on the existence of God but a wild, overwrought, half-crazed women driven by irrational hate and venom in which she went about denying God.
Eventually, in 1995, she, her daughter and son-in law got caught up in some criminal scheme that had their bodies found in some shallow grave in Texas.
My point is, you've got to wonder what drives these atheists to create a Godless Church, sing, participate in Church activities that really has no purpose without a Supreme being and which has me realize, they are being relentlessly driven to practice their atheistic pretensions, which in the absence of believing in a God is being driven, by nothing but sheer hatred, venom and outright cynicism, trying, hoping to make a fool of God.
While they might not realize it, these people are begging to be ‘convinced’ that God is real, is Holy, and can be had through trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ.
They know deep down the emptiness in them longs to be satisfied by the only One who can do it.
A little off topic but when Apollo 8 circled the moon for the first time, Astronaut Jim Lovell read from the Book of Genesis and broadcast all over the US. When they returned he learned he was being sued by some lady in Texas for daring to read from the Bible (Church and state nonsense).
Would you know if it happened to be the one you posted about, this Madalyn Murray O’Hair? The year was 1968 I believe.
With the Apollo 8 crew reading from the Book of Genesis, even though she hadn't a legal leg to stand on, nevertheless she made a lot of noise about it but had no legal basis in which to make a case.
The woman engendered tremendous hatred for forcing prayer out of school in the 1950's which was a time in which Christian customs, beliefs were deeply ingrained, practice widespread, and having prayer forced out of school was a terrible blow to their Christian sensibilities. O'hair's horrific death with that of her daughter and son-in-law seemed to be God's retribution for her terrible misdeeds.
Actually, I think it was Frank Borman who did that reading.
O’Hair was a mean hateful woman mad at the world. She was eventually consumed by that hatred. If that is not proof of God, I don’t know what is.
I see you're moving up in the world...
(See #9)
We just want to make him dictator of the English-speaking world.
After last nights essay: I have no problem with that. :)
I don’t agree with everything, but before he gets through all the stuff I *do* agree with, I’ll be dead.
Problem is, most of church IS religious stuff. They're still using it. They're just thinking they're talking GOD out of it.
I say let them build their own building.
However, God is not mocked....
Philippians 1:12-18 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.
You TOLD!
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