Communal Secularity: Congregational Work at the Sunday Assembly

JesseM.Smith CommunalSecularity: Congregational Work at the Sunday Assembly 1Introduction The SundayAssemblyisyoung.Itisstill developing as an international organization, and is in the earlystages of making its mark in the broader secular community.Exactlywhat this mark will be remains to be seen. Despite its youth and status as essentiallya21 centurysecular congregational experiment,itappears to be maturing quicklyand is unquestionablymeetingademand within acertain sector of the secular population in the west and other parts of the globe. Espe- ciallybecause of its newness, it is importanttobegin adiscussion of the Sunday Assembly, and the idea of communal secularity more abstractly, by outlining the basics of its formation and operation in order to understand bothits uniqueness within, and relevance to, organized secularism generally. After examining the keycomponents of its history and earlydevelopment, this chapter explores the interactional details of what Icall “communal secularity,” (Smith 2017)with the SundayAssemblyservingasasalient case studyofthe concept.Thisinvolvesasociological discussion of congregationaland identity dynamics, and the application of social psychological insights regarding ritual, emotion,morality,and other symbolic dimensions of this type of collective ex- pression of the secular.Iconceptualize communal secularityasthe particularre- lationship of these elements vis-à-vis the secular,and by wayofdefining the processbywhich some secular people in contemporary culture address and ex- press their secular identities, values, and worldviews. 2Sunday Assembly’sHistory and Organization The SundayAssembly began in the United Kingdom in 2013,aproduct of earlier conversations between Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans, two youngBritish co- medians. One daywhile driving to agig together,they werereportedlyhalf-jok- ing about the idea of achurch for atheists, when they stumbled upon the con- ceptual seeds that would grow to become the SundayAssembly(SA or Assembly, hereafter). On the simplest level, we can define the SA in accordance with its publiclystated intent as proffered by it co-creators. It is, as SA’swebsite OpenAccess. ©2017 Jesse M. Smith, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the CreativeCommons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110458657-009 Brought to you by | Sacred Heart University Authenticated Download Date | 1/11/18 4:16 PM 152 Jesse M. Smith described it,aregularlyscheduled gathering – an assembly – of secular-minded people for the purpose of “living better,helping often, and wondering more.”¹ The creation of an inclusive,synod-style network of secular congregations in communities around the globe became the major objective.The very first Assem- blywas held on January 6th 2013.About 200congregants were in attendance at the Nave,adeconsecrated church in London. The original Assemblyhas since found its permanent venue at the historic ConwayHall, the home of one of the oldest ethical culturesocieties. The SA has seen significant growth and gar- nered considerable public and media attention (and some controversy) since then. As of this writing there are officially70established, active congregations in 8countries across Europe, North America,and Oceania. Over half of all As- semblies are in North America.The most active Assemblies have between 50 and 250congregants, while manysmaller start-up or “warm-up” congregations (bysome reports,inthe hundreds) have far fewer participants and meet irregu- larly. The SA is anon-profit,volunteer-based organization and has acquired legal status as aregistered charity with atrading subsidiarity,SundayAssemblyLim- ited. Each congregationalchapter,regardless of its geographic location, adheres to ageneral set of guidelines, policies, and quality control measures as outlined by its creators,official charter,and otheradministrative organizers, collectively referred to as the General Assembly. Sanderson Jones holds the position of CEO.Heand the SA are supported by aCOO, “community creators,” and a five-member board of trustees.Like the polities of some (especiallyliberal) religious groups,itgives afair amount of autonomytoindividual congregations regarding the specifics of theirSundayservices. There is no deliberate hierarchyor central authority beyond the basicadministrative body(the General Assembly), which supports the public relations,media, and marketingaspects of running an organization. There is no codified or official Assemblydoctrine and no paid or trained clergywho exercisedoctrinal authority over congregations. Instead, each congregation is led by ateam of Assembly organizers who adhere to the As- semblies policies and general objectives. Each start-up congregation is self-pro- duced by volunteers in the community basedonlocal interest and demand. Local secular activists, humanists, and nontheists interestedinstarting a congregation are directed to the SA’swebsitewherethey are asked to review the charter,relevant policies, accept their terms and conditions,and to connect with alreadyofficiallyrecognized congregations. This initiates the process of developing anew Assembly. Next,aspiringcongregation organizers undergo afor- SundayAssembly’sweb address:www.sundayassembly.com. Brought to you by | Sacred Heart University Authenticated Download Date | 1/11/18 4:16 PM CommunalSecularity: CongregationalWork at the Sunday Assembly 153 mal peer-review process from SA’sgoverning bodytoshow evidence that asta- ble, regularlymeetingcongregation is feasible. When at least 10 committed organizers can show they are meeting regularlyand gathering interest in the community (most often through various social media outlets like Facebook and Meetup)they can become a “warm-up” group, be added to the website as such, and benefit from wider promotion. Once aregular venue has been established, musicians are broughton, and speakers have been lined up, the warm-up group can formallyapply for official status, and if approved, have their first “launch” as afull-fledgedSundayAssem- bly. If the burgeoning congregation does well, it must then apply for accreditation from the General Assemblywithin two years of its launch. This accreditation processinvolveslegal documentation to accommodate SA’sU.K.-based charita- ble organization status, on-site visits, and video recordingofliveAssemblies to ensure they are meeting the objectivesand are within the guidelines.² Not surprisingly,most Assemblies are hosted in major cities such as London, Los Angeles, and Sydney,but thereare also congregations in smaller cities and even rural areas around the globe. Specifically, thereare up to 200Assemblies (includingwarm-up groups) on 5different continents. No official public records are yetavailable regardingmembership at the SA,but it seems likelythat if congregations continue to grow,greater effort will be made towardofficial record- keeping. Unlikemost religious congregations, there is no formal documented process(e.g. baptism or member confirmation) for becomingamemberofthe SA,and currentlyorganizational affiliation is entirelybased on adult, voluntary self-identification.³ Irrespective of SA’squick growth, their totalnumbers are a tinyfraction of thosemaintained by manyestablished religious congregations. Even if each current,active Assembly had 100 regular congregants, that would bring the total global participation to around 7,000 people. See www.sundayassembly.com for moredetails regarding the technical aspects of its organization. This contrasts with manyreligious organizations,wheremuch of the membershipiscom- prised, not by adultconverts, but by those raised within the religion as childrenwho become official members through religious ordinances. With some organizations (e.g. Mormon Church), those wholeave as adults must formallypetition to have their names removed from member records. Otherwise they continue to be counted as members by the Church, despiteinactivity or even apostasy. Brought to you by | Sacred Heart University Authenticated Download Date | 1/11/18 4:16 PM 154 Jesse M. Smith 3Studying GodlessCongregations Ibegan studying the SundayAssemblyinthe summerof2013 – justmonths after its formation – after receiving asmall grant to travel and begin fieldwork. Ipar- ticipated in the San Diego, Chicago, and London Assemblies.San Diegohas one of the largerAssemblies in the United States,and at the time had around 200 participants. The Chicagochapter had around 80 congregants when Iattended (they had alargerturnout previously, but lost some participantsbecause of an issue securing aregular venue). Conservatively,these numbers likelyrepresent manyofthe 70 Assemblies active today. Over 18 months Iconducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with 13 congregants from the San DiegoAssembly, and 8from the ChicagoAssembly.Iat- tended, but did not interview congregants from the London Assemblydue to travel and time constraints. My participation in live Assemblies in each city to- taled about 10 hours, but Ialso analyzed the content of approximately18 hours of live video recorded Assemblies made available on the San Diegochap- ter’swebsite. Watchingrecorded Assemblies added to my fieldwork by expand- ing my familiarity with details of Assemblyservices.This allowed me to further develop the themesand patterns of interaction that Iobserved in the field. This was important for my research since U.S. Assemblies onlyoccur once amonth, which obviouslylimits the frequency with which Icould attend. Irecruited

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