3 ms·

You'll find that in some communities, the Universalist Unitarians or liberal/universalist/nontheist Quaker meetings might fit the need. https://en.wikipedia.or

by huxley 10y ago

You'll find that in some communities, the Universalist Unitarians or liberal/universalist/nontheist Quaker meetings might fit the need. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarian_Universalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarian_Universalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quakers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quakers I've known several atheists/agnostics that go to both locally and the few times I've gone to either the meetings tend to be quite low in dogma. Not my thing, but if you crave that sort of community might be worth taking a look.

cmrdporcupine 10y ago
I looked into the local Unitarian Universalists, and they are very New Age types. I like their social justice angle but wouldn't be able to sit through their sermons/discussions without making faces.
- Bartweiss 10y ago
  It's worth seeing if you have any other Unitarian church near you. There's a lot of variance in their practices, from intense New Age spiritualism to simple discussion and silent reflection.
- CelestialTeapot 10y ago
  If you're not interested in the woo, you could always try the Secular Humanist Society or other similar rationalist local groups that don't preach religiosity. https://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php/locations/ https://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php/locations/
s_kilk 10y ago
Thumbs-up for mentioning the Quakers. I'm not a believer at all, but they're generally great people and super non-preachy.
- jdeibele 10y ago
  There's at least a couple of kinds of Quakers: ones with ministers and ones without. My wife belongs to a Meeting that doesn't have a minister. Instead of having someone preach, the attenders sit silently in a circle. If someone is moved to say something, they stand up and say it. Sometimes one or more people will respond. Meeting decisions have to be unanimous. It's a real source of frustration at times trying to convince the last holdout. Instead of a minister, they have a clerk. The clerk is elected and coordinates the church for a year. Before we were married, we had to meet several times with a clearance committee that had to say that we were ready to marry. I understand many ministers do something similar but this was a great thing. One of the members said it used to be a way that parents could stall a marriage - things were different 200 years ago with teenagers wanting to get married. (My wife and I were 33 and 39.) I remember reading an article about calling "root" "clerk" as a way to deter your boss from asking for root privileges.

by huxley 10y ago

cmrdporcupine 10y ago

I looked into the local Unitarian Universalists, and they are very New Age types. I like their social justice angle but wouldn't be able to sit through their sermons/discussions without making faces.

Bartweiss 10y ago
It's worth seeing if you have any other Unitarian church near you. There's a lot of variance in their practices, from intense New Age spiritualism to simple discussion and silent reflection.
CelestialTeapot 10y ago
If you're not interested in the woo, you could always try the Secular Humanist Society or other similar rationalist local groups that don't preach religiosity. https://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php/locations/ https://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php/locations/

s_kilk 10y ago

Thumbs-up for mentioning the Quakers. I'm not a believer at all, but they're generally great people and super non-preachy.

jdeibele 10y ago
There's at least a couple of kinds of Quakers: ones with ministers and ones without. My wife belongs to a Meeting that doesn't have a minister. Instead of having someone preach, the attenders sit silently in a circle. If someone is moved to say something, they stand up and say it. Sometimes one or more people will respond. Meeting decisions have to be unanimous. It's a real source of frustration at times trying to convince the last holdout. Instead of a minister, they have a clerk. The clerk is elected and coordinates the church for a year. Before we were married, we had to meet several times with a clearance committee that had to say that we were ready to marry. I understand many ministers do something similar but this was a great thing. One of the members said it used to be a way that parents could stall a marriage - things were different 200 years ago with teenagers wanting to get married. (My wife and I were 33 and 39.) I remember reading an article about calling "root" "clerk" as a way to deter your boss from asking for root privileges.