'Atheist church' seeks £500,000 to build online platform
"Things which are organised are not necessarily bad. A lot of people mistake the organisational aspects of something [e.g. religion] with the bad things that have happened because of it." - Sanderson Jones
20 October 13 / by Olivia Solon
The Sunday Assembly, a godless congregation set up by comedians Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans, is looking to raise £500,000 to build a digital platform that will enable the movement to scale.
The organisation launched in January 2013 with the mission statement to "live better, help often and wonder more". It runs events on Sundays where people come together to listen to talks, sing songs and "generally celebrate the wonder of life". It has since expanded to 35 different cities. It's done all of this with a very basic Wordpress website. The plan is to raise the money through Indiegogo and set up a three-person team -- a UX specialist, developer and product manager -- dedicated to building the platform.
"We are a charity, so we can't give stock options so we have to pay wages," Sanderson Jones told Wired.co.uk. The platform will help people lean how to set up their own Assembly, connect with each other and create their own meetups.
Jones believes that there is "an incredible opportunity to change the world for the better", citing studies that have shown that people who go to church are healthier, wealthier, live longer and are happier.
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-10/20/sunday-assembly-expansion
