Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

Even atheists believe church is good for the soul. That is, they would if they believed in the soul.

Two comedians from England have launched the Sunday Assembly, church for the godless. I can’t tell if this is a cosmic joke or cause for weeping.

The founders cite studies that show churchgoers are happier and healthier. Going to church creates community and builds relationships, the founders acknowledge. And families like the structure of church for their children.

Although any comparison will fail, a church for atheists seems a little like producing “Hamlet” without Hamlet. Thanksgiving without the turkey. The World Series without a bat.
It’s just playing church if the central figure is missing. 

I’m angry at the way this group wants to co-opt church as if there’s nothing divine and sacred. As if it’s just a gathering of like-minded people on Sunday morning who sing and talk and drink coffee together. But then I think about how God works in mysterious ways. And this might be both opportunity and reminder. 

The opportunity is to tell people why we are a part of the church catholic. Why it matters that we worship together. Why it’s different than a coffee shop or a lecture hall. This movement invites us to articulate our faith, to claim it, to live into it. 

And this offers a poignant reminder. Even people who claim to not believe in God recognize that there’s something special about how we gather together in community. It’s so special, so powerful and important, that they want to recreate it in their own context. Imitation is flattery, after all. 

As God reminds us often, where two or three are gathered, there God is, even unbidden.