The first Sunday Assembly outside London will take place in Glasgow on 31 March. The venue is still being finalised, but the speaker is Scottish comedian Susan Calman (bottom picture).
The Sunday Assembly is an atheist church started by Sanderson Jones (pictured below) and Pippa Evans. Using comedy to attract an audience to church seems an obvious idea that hadn’t occurred to anyone until Jones and Evans came along.
In an opinion piece to The New York Times they explain the appeal of a church for an atheist; ‘… church has got so many awesome things going for it (which we’ve shamelessly nicked). Singing together in a group? Super. Hearing interesting things? Rad. (Our first reading was Theodore Roosevelt’s Man in the Arena bit.) A moment to think quietly about your life? Wizard. Getting to know your neighbors? Ace.’
If you’d prefer just the comedy without the church, atheist or otherwise, then Sanderson Jones will also be performing at Glasgow’s International Comedy Festival (14-31 March). Usually Sanderson bypasses the box office and sells tickets to his audience face to face which, depending on your point of view, is disarmingly friendly or a frightening loss of anonymity. Contact him on twitter and he’ll deliver tickets personally.
The Glasgow venue will be confirmed on the Sunday Assembly Facebook page.
Is the Atheist Church still going on. Where exactly is it and at what times and days/evenings is it open to the public? I would like to know much more about it.
Hi Robert, sorry for the delay in coming back to you. We believe it was a single event rather than a regular event. If we hear of any more we’ll let you know. Thanks