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rug

(82,333 posts)
Wed Jun 8, 2016, 08:44 PM Jun 2016

Creating Community Beyond Church

Sunday Assembly Las Vegas offers a congregation for the non-religious.



Photos courtesy of Sunday Assembly

Wednesday, June 8 1:18pm
By Soni Brown

Las Vegas’ master-planned subdivisions and lack of walkable neighborhoods don’t make for a city that encourages communal bonds. New residents in particular feel this void, given that many of them moved here as adults and don’t have the same deep roots found elsewhere.

Going to church or hanging at a local watering hole can help rectify that. But what do you do if you don’t drink or believe in religion? You go to Sunday Assembly Las Vegas.

The non-believer church was started by two British comics in 2013 as a social gathering, much like Sunday morning worship. Founders of the Las Vegas chapter, Kevin Breen and Cassandra Cicone, describe Sunday Assembly as a church for people who are neither for nor against religion, but who are seeking the same benefits that a congregation offers, such as creating community and connection.

Unlike atheist groups such as the Flying Spaghetti Monster or the United Church of Bacon, Sunday Assembly isn’t a parody or a mockery of church and religion. According to Breen, Sunday Assembly gathers to celebrate the group’s core tenets: living better, helping often and wondering more.

http://vegasseven.com/2016/06/08/creating-community-beyond-church/

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Creating Community Beyond Church (Original Post) rug Jun 2016 OP
Communal bonds go beyond church or bars. Igel Jun 2016 #1
Some are keeping it up. rug Jun 2016 #2

Igel

(35,191 posts)
1. Communal bonds go beyond church or bars.
Wed Jun 8, 2016, 09:42 PM
Jun 2016

There used to be a lot of groups that formed up. Orchestras and choirs, plant-based societies or cat fanciers, Rotarians or VFWs or PTAs. Scouting and other such groups also provide bonding.

Now, not so much. People are embarrassed to not perform musically as well as the professionals (or, worse, assume they do perform as well); Toast Masters are for fuddy-duddies. VFWs don't do it for younger returnees from foreign wars. A lot of schools don't have PTAs.

I have a mandolin from the 1890s. Not worth much because they're common as dirt. There used to be a lot of plucked string orchestras. They had more time, the idea is. They didn't, not really, but they had fewer time-kills. Instead of sitting and staring at the tv or radio they had to do something: They could sit and doze off or they could play, they could talk, they could do things. Same thing's affected teens: You see groups of them sitting there, but instead of talking they text.

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