A 'church' for atheists? Yes, one is coming to Madison, with monthly services

Growing up in Madison, Naomi Kroth attended a Christian church with her parents and loved it. Well, most of it.

As she matured into young adulthood, she encountered a hitch she couldnt ignore: She didnt believe in a higher power. She stopped attending services and now identifies as an atheist. Yet she still yearned for something more.

Ive always missed going to church the singing, the sermon, the volunteerism, the community, said Kroth, 30, of Madison, a project manager for a construction firm. But I couldnt reconcile that with my views on religion.

The solution came by way of an international movement to create church-like experiences for non-theists. The monthly gatherings, called Sunday Assemblies, adopt many aspects of religious worship services, just none of the God talk.

Kroth and a small group of others are now bringing the concept here. Sunday Assembly Madison is scheduled to hold its first service Sept. 28 in rented space at Prairie Unitarian Universalist Society, 2010 Whenona Drive, on the citys Southwest Side.

Well be a community of like-minded people coming together to support each other and learn from each other a godless congregation, said Eric Snyder, 61, of Sun Prairie, a retired computer programmer and another of the founders.

The movement has elicited skepticism and outright ridicule from some quarters, but it has momentum. The local gathering is one of many Sunday Assembly startups expected to launch that same day, bringing the total number of chapters across the globe to an anticipated 100 or so by the end of the year.

Its fellowship without the dogma, said Lavada Luening of West Allis, organizer of Sunday Assembly Milwaukee, which started in December. It has only a handful of core members, she said, but hasnt done much publicity and is still building its infrastructure. The Madison founders said they dont know how many participants to anticipate initially.

The first-ever Sunday Assembly was held about 18 months ago in London, launched by two British comedians, Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans. In a guest column in the New York Times, the two said they started Sunday Assembly because the idea of meeting once a month to sing songs, hear great speakers and celebrate the incredible gift of life seems like a fun, and useful, thing to do.

There is now a nonprofit corporation in New Jersey called Sunday Assembly in America, which is providing support to existing U.S. assemblies and helping launch new ones. Its spokesman said it has filed paperwork with the IRS to become a tax-exempt public charity, although he said it has no intention of being defined as a religion. Kroth said Sunday Assembly Madison also hopes to become tax-exempt.

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A 'church' for atheists? Yes, one is coming to Madison, with monthly services