United Kingdom: Sunday Assembly, for a “Church without God”
Sunday Assembly in London.
The first Sunday Assembly was held in London on Sunday, January 6, 2013, the feast of the Epiphany. The result of a Facebook appeal from two British comedians Pippa Evans and Sanderson Jones, the Sunday Assembly gathered nearly 200 participants in an old decommissioned church, St. Paul’s Church in The Nave in Islington. Since then, 400 participants come together two Sundays a month in Conway Hall, a London Ethical and Freethought Center, to “celebrate life” in a “joyful and friendly” atmosphere around existential themes such as brotherhood, understanding, sharing, interiority, reflection.
As of today, says the organization’s website, 70 Sunday Assemblies have been founded in eight different countries, including France, the Netherlands, the United States and Australia. The two founders speak of a common aspiration: to create an entirely secular Church that is open to all regardless of their beliefs. Their goal: a worldwide network of communities without God. “We build communities to help everyone live life as fully as possible,” without God or doctrine, for “we are born from nothing and go to nothing.” Such is the charter of the exclusively philanthropic movement, with the slogan-creed: “live better, help often, wonder more.”
In London, these Sunday Assemblies gather for an hour in the morning and following a willfully emotional layout: they start by singing an English Pop song everyone knows. Then comedian Pippa Evans welcomes the assembly and presents the Sunday theme: war and conflict, for example. The preacher of the day, Mark Vernon, explains the importance of introspection in realizing one’s determinisms, stereotypes and passions. For, he says, the conflicts that surround us and grieve us find root in our interior microcosm. Then all rise to sing Zombie by the Cranberries, enthusiastically intoned by two young singers and their musical accompaniment. Next comes a minute of silence, followed by a collection destined to provide for the material contingencies of the organizers of the new “cult”. And lastly, a final song, followed by endless chatter over tea and biscuits.
Brotherhood is capital for the London Sunday Assembly goers: “the songs, the unity and the moments of silence add an emotional aspect that anchors the rational discourse more profoundly.” Real breaks in a hectic big city life: “Here, we stop, we meditate and it relaxes the brain.” Celebrating life is the motive behind these gatherings. And in order to do so, the Sunday Assemblies wish to create a place where people can “look at their own existence with a little more joy and kindness,” explains Sanderson Jones, with his long red hair and long beard. “There are no religious values at the Sunday Assemblies. The most important thing is that everyone is welcome,” adds Pippa Evans. “No matter our beliefs or opinions, deep down we are all human and we are all connected. We all need to celebrate the fact we are alive. So we leave politics and opinions at the door and we celebrate the fact that we are all brilliant and we are all here today.”
With their Sunday morning existential themes and fraternal and joyful approach, Sunday Assemblies are a new expression of a militant atheism that offers a community dimension. As Pope Pius XI teaches (encyclical Quas Primas, December 11, 1925), at the root of the unease that plagues the world in which we live, lies atheism: men, in an unheard of confusion, persist in denying the existence of the One who created them, or at least in living as if He did not exist. They wish at all costs to banish God from their social life, from their intelligence, from their hearts. But through this triple denial, they condemn themselves to a triple ruin: they condemn their society to perpetual struggles, for peace among men is impossible without charity, and charity cannot exist outside of God: they enslave their intelligence to the darkness and anguish of perpetual doubt, for the Truth and God are one; they deprive themselves of the only happiness that can satisfy them, the Absolute Good, and throw themselves desperately into the pleasures of the senses, in which they can only find shame, misery and degradation. To escape such great evils, to return to the straight path, we wish to show that the human race has only to listen to the voice of its leader and to follow in the steps of the One who alone can give it peace, light and happiness. It is precisely for this reason that the Church offers the feast of Christ the King for our meditation. (Don Jean de Monléon, Le Christ-Roi)
(Sources: cath-info/sundayassembly/lefigaro – DICI no.346 Dec. 9, 2016)
