8.0.11.2 Community Meetings

Version 1.3 December 2016                               (Previous Version)

Many of us have grown up attending temple, synagogue, church or mosque, and are familiar with the routines followed in supernatural religions.  Many religions have other meetings at which there is no specific agenda except to enable us to be connected to other like-minded people, to feel validated and normalised, by a variety of public expressions of what we believe. 

These typically include readings from sacred texts, reciting creeds or prayers, listening to an exposition from a leader, ritual actions such as lighting candles, music, singing and dancing.  But reading, reciting, listening, interacting, singing and dancing have nothing to do with God(s).  They are methods we use to share our sense of community and commonality – our communion. 

Secular and atheist groups can have meetings with this broad agenda:

·            We perhaps begin, or end, by sharing drinks (tea, coffee or wine) or a meal.

·            We welcome each other and newcomers;

·            We have some form of presentation, a lecture or a video, followed by discussion;

·            Sometimes we can have an artistic presentation, not necessarily linked to the meeting’s theme: reciting poetry or prose or a musical or dance performance;

·            Perhaps we end with games, music and dancing, or retiring to plan future activities.

Many – perhaps most – of the followers of this reasonable global way may not see a need for such meetings, having been put off by formal ceremonies involving unbelievable supernatural beings and arbitrary demands.  However, believers in any cause who feel isolated, without community support, are likely to lose touch and stray from what they originally believed.

We are not suggesting that there should be any fixed or prescribed format or content for meetings.  But it would be good to generate some material that will be useful for regular meetings that can provide some focus and interest and provoke discussion and reflection. 

We should note that many supposedly non-religious gatherings already meet these criteria:

●   Music, arts and writers festivals are most often modern, secular, meetings founded on the desire for the attendees to not only rejoice in the artistic expression, but to confront current social issues, in songs, art works, poems and prose, and to share our concerns and feel a sense of community with others who are aware of the issues or willing to experience an emotional introduction to them.  The major problem is that the “solutionâ€� has had no name!

●   Many academic and business seminars involve not only structured and courteous tolerance of the other attendees and their diverse opinions but also frequently refer to or specifically address the ethical and legal issues related to the topic, whether it be science or business.

The point here is that acting according to global beliefs and values, is not in any sense ‘above’ or separate from day to day life, but it is an intrinsic part of it.