LONDON – Sebuah tempat yang dijuluki sebagai gereja kaum ateis di London Utara, Inggris, kian ramai dikunjungi jemaatnya. Sementara gereja di sekitarnya makin merosot jemaatnya.
Gereja yang diluncurkan bulan lalu itu disebut Sanderson Jones, salah satu pengiatnya, sebagai “tempat untuk merayakan kehidupan.” Jones bersama Pippa Evans melabeli gereja yang didirikannya dengan nama The Nave, dengan mengusung moto “hidup lebih baik, sering menolong, dan berkelana lebih banyak.” Sama seperti halnya gereja, mereka juga akan mendatangkan para motivator yang menginspirasi setiap bulannya.
Akhir pekan lalu, mereka menggelar kebaktian dengan tema “Permulaan” yang memfokuskan pada resolusi Tahun Baru dengan pengkhotbah Arthur Smith, Lucy Porter, Josie Long, Susan Calman, Imran Yusuf dan Nick Revell.
Sedikitnya 300 orang mengunjungi menjejali gereja ini untuk bergabung dengan acara Kebaktian Minggu (The Sunday Assembly) yang dibuka secara gratis. Alih-alih himne, atau mendengarkan khotbah, mereka mendendangkan bersama lagu-lagu Stevie Wonder dan Queen.
Menjelang tengah hari, pengunjung dipersilakan untuk mendengarkan presentasi dari seorang ahli fisika partikel, Dr Harry Cliff, yang menjelaskan asal-usul teori materi gelap. Namun, teori-teorinya yang rumit dibawakan secara santai, bahkan diselingi banyak ger-geran.
Jones menyatakan, kritik bahwa ateis tidak memiliki rasa adalah tidak benar. “Kami menundukkan kepala selama dua menit untuk berkontemplasi tentang keajaiban hidup,” ujar pria yang berprofesi sebagai komedian stand-up itu.
...Kebaktian gereja ateis dikunjungi 300-an jemaat. Sementara gereja Kristen St Jude dan St Paul makin sepi, hanya didatangi sekitar 30-an jemaat...
Jumlah orang yang menyatakan diri menjadi tidak beragama di Inggris meningkat lebih dari 6 juta orang sejak 2001, menjadi 14,1 juta menurut sensus terakhir. Angka inilah yang membuat Inggris negara yang paling sekuler di Barat.
Jones membenarkan hasil survei itu. Ia mengatakan mereka mulai kewalahan atas reaksi publik terhadap kemunculan gerejanya. Hampir tiap hari, katanya, pengunjung membanjir. Itulah sebabnya dia berpikir untuk membuka gereja yang sama di setiap kota di Inggris. “Saya ingin melakukan ini karena saya pikir itu akan menjadi hal yang indah,” ujarnya.
Di seberang gereja Ateis itu, berdiri dua gereja Kristen yang sangat sepi, St Jude dan St Paul. Tiap pekan, gereja ini hanya didatangi sekitar 30-an orang jemaat, untuk menyanyikan lagu pujian dan mendengarkan pembacaan Alkitab (Bibel).
Meski gerejanya makin sepi, Pendeta Harrison mengklaim tidak risau dengan maraknya gereja ateis. Pria yang sudah menjadi pengkhotbah Kristen selama 30 tahun itu mengaku tidak melihat tetangga barunya sebagai ancaman.
Read more: wisbenbae: Gereja Kristen Kalah Bersaing dengan Gereja Ateis
What happens at an atheist church?By Brian Wheeler BBC News Magazine  H
arry Cliff gives his science lecture at the Sunday Assembly in a former church
In today's Magazine
An "atheist church" in North London is proving a big hit with non-believers. Does it feel a bit like a new religion? Not many sermons include the message that we are all going to die and there is no afterlife.
But the Sunday Assembly is no ordinary church service.
Launched last month, as a gathering for non-believers, it is, in the words of master of ceremonies Sanderson Jones, "part foot-stomping show, part atheist church, all celebration of life".
A congregation of more than 300 crowded into the shell of a deconsecrated church to join the celebration on Sunday morning.
Instead of hymns, the non-faithful get to their feet to sing along to Stevie Wonder and Queen songs.
Order of service- Theme of "wonder"
- Congregation sang Queen's Don't Stop Me Now, Superstition by Stevie Wonder and Nina Simone's Ain't Got No
- Screen on altar showed photo of TV scientist Dr Brian Cox
- Reading by Dr Harry Cliff, a particle physicist, on the discovery of antimatter
There is a reading from Alice in Wonderland and a power-point presentation from a particle physicist, Dr Harry Cliff, who explains the origins of antimatter theory. It feels like a stand-up comedy show. Jones and co-founder Pippa Evans trade banter and whip the crowd up like the veterans of the stand-up circuit that they are.
But there are more serious moments.
The theme of the morning is "wonder" - a reaction, explains Jones, to criticism that atheists lack a sense of it.
So we bow our heads for two minutes of contemplation about the miracle of life and, in his closing sermon, Jones speaks about how the death of his mother influenced his own spiritual journey and determination to get the most out of every second, aware that life is all too brief and nothing comes after it.
“Start Quote I don't think I'm a charismatic preacher”
Sanderson Jones
The audience - overwhelmingly young, white and middle class - appear excited to be part of something new and speak of the void they felt on a Sunday morning when they decided to abandon their Christian faith. Few actively identify themselves as atheists. "It's a nice excuse to get together and have a bit of a community spirit but without the religion aspect," says Jess Bonham, a photographer.
"It's not a church, it's a congregation of unreligious people."
Another attendee, Gintare Karalyte, says: "I think people need that sense of connectedness because everyone is so singular right now, and to be part of something, and to feel like you are part of something. That's what people are craving in the world."
The number of people declaring themselves to be of "no religion" in England and Wales has increased by more than six million since 2001 to 14.1 million, according to the latest census. That makes England and Wales two of the most unreligious nations in the Western world.
 Atheists are getting more vocal, such as this ad campaign on London buses
Figures such as writer Richard Dawkins and comedian Ricky Gervais have made it fashionable to be more assertive about having a lack of religious faith and to think about what it means to be an atheist.
“Start QuoteThere's no scientific answer to being virtuous, but the key thing is to have some kind of list on which to flex our ethical muscles”
Alain De Botton
And writer Alain De Botton has unveiled a Manifesto for Atheists, listing 10 virtues - or as the press has already dubbed them "commandments" - for the faithless. De Botton says he wants to promote overlooked virtues such as resilience and humour. He came up with the idea in response to a growing sense that being virtuous had become "a strange and depressing notion", which seems to chime with the Sunday Assembly's own mantra "live better, help often, wonder more".
He argues for a new breed of secular therapists to take the place of the priesthood and believes atheism should have its own churches, but adds: "It should never be called that, because 'atheism' isn't an ideology around which anyone could gather. Far better to call it something like cultural humanism."
There is a concern among some non-believers that atheism is developing into a religion in its own right, with its own code of ethics and self-appointed high priests.
Jones insists he is not trying to found a new religion, but some members of his congregation disagree.
Atheism unpicked
- Word comes from a meaning without, and theism meaning belief in god or gods
- Atheists believe gods are man-made myths
- Some are not interested in organised religion, others distrust it
- Atheist churches built in late 19th and early 20th Centuries as part of French thinker Auguste Comte's Religion of Humanity
"It will become an organised religion. It's inevitable. A belief system will set in. There will be a structure, an ethical outlook on life," says architect Robbie Harris. He believes Evans and Jones have "a great responsibility" if the Sunday Assembly "continues to be as successful as it is now".
"There is a difficulty that it might become cultish and it might become about one person. You could set yourself up as a charismatic preacher, that's the danger."
Fellow congregation member Sarah Aspinall says: "I think Sanderson should step back and see himself as a mediator and an enabler, which I think he is obviously good at, and just bring people up to speak or read."
Jones says it is very early days and future assemblies will be less about him and more about the experiences of congregation members. He bridles at the suggestion he is starting a cult.
"I don't think I'm a charismatic preacher. I just get very excited about things and want to share that with people."
He says he has been overwhelmed by the public reaction to the Sunday Assembly and is exploring the possibility of setting up similar gatherings around the country.
"I wanted to do this because I thought it would be a wonderful thing," he explains.
Watch the Sunday Assembly
The Sunday Assembly certainly did better business than at the evangelical St Jude and St Paul's Church next door, where about 30 believers gathered to sing gospel songs and listen to Bible readings.
But Bishop Harrison, a Christian preacher for 30 years, says he does not see his new neighbours as a threat, confidently predicting that their spiritual journey will eventually lead them to God.
"They have got to start from somewhere," he says.
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Post time 21-2-2013 11:22 AM
变色卡
iman ibarat setitik buih dilautan..fahami surah iqra'.baru kita tahu hala tuju.
