Harvard's humanist chaplain Greg Epstein leads an atheist gathering.Īfter the music, Epstein offers a few words of greeting before the meeting gets to its heart: a discussion about compassion.Ī four academics and a journalist discuss the effects of religion on raising children and their ideas about compassion. “But that won’t take away from my gratitude.” “I don't believe in a great power to say thank you to,” Segal sings. Taking a hint from the theme of the event, Segal strums on her guitar and belts her song, “Gratitude.” READ MORE: Unbelieving preachers get help to 'come out' as open atheistsĪs members of the Cambridge congregation file into a wood-paneled classroom at Harvard, singer Shelley Segal greets them with a few songs from her latest recording, called simply, “An Atheist Album.” There is going to be someone there to do weddings and to do, unfortunately, the funerals." "When you become a part of this congregation, this community, you are going to become part of a family," DeWitt told CNN. "There is an infrastructure there for you to land in. This Sunday, DeWitt's congregation will hold its first meeting as a "Community Mission Chapel." Jerry DeWitt, who became an atheist and left his job as an evangelical minister, is using his pastoral experience to building an atheist church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
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“It doesn’t require and it doesn't even imply a specific set of beliefs about anything.”Įpstein is not alone in his endeavor. “We decided recently that we want to use the word congregation more and more often because that is a word that strongly evokes a certain kind of community - a really close knit, strong community that can make strong change happen in the world,” he said.
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“My point to my fellow atheists is, why do we need to paint things with such a broad brush? We can learn from the positive while learning how to get rid of the negative," he said.įor Epstein, who started community-building at Harvard nearly 10 years ago, the idea of a godless congregation is not an oxymoron. To Epstein, religion is not all bad, and there is no reason to reject its helpful aspects. Sunday’s congregation in Cambridge is a meeting of the Humanist Community at Harvard University and the brainchild of Greg Epstein, the school’s Humanist chaplain.Ī longtime advocate for community building, Epstein and his group of atheists have begun to build their Cambridge community and solemnize its Sunday meetings to resemble a traditional religious service. If so, it’s a church without one big player: God. Outsiders could be forgiven for believing this service, with its homilies, its passing of the plate, its uplifting songs, belongs in a church. Music is played, announcements are made and scholars wax poetic about the importance of compassion and community. Boston (CNN)-– It’s Sunday in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a rapt congregation listens to a chaplain preach about the importance of building a community.Ī few dozen people sit quietly for the hourlong service.