When comics Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans launched the Sunday Assembly in a dilapidated North London church on 6 January 2013, they sought to create a gathering for nonbelievers who wanted to “live better, help often and wonder more” without the religious trappings associated with a Christian church. …

Although these comedic co-founders admit they nicked the best components of church like group singing, interesting talks and community building, Jones articulates a unique vision for the Sunday Assembly:

“This isn’t about making people into atheists or preaching against God. Rather, we seek to provide the human and social needs for a lot of people who don’t believe in God but want to congregate and share similar positive values.”

In the past six months, this community has grown from 250 to 600 attendees, and they now meet in a 1,200 seat arena. This growth coincides with the latest census, which ranked England and Wales as two of the most unreligious nations in the western world with 14.1 million people declaring themselves to be of “no religion”.