Free Thinking/Non-theist/Atheist Church

i feel like atheist church is an oxymoron. I guess I've only ever heard of them called universal churches...

Atheist church for social interaction= ...bar?

Brooklyn Society For Ethical Culture springs to mind.

Isn't United Methodist (?) church more like a fellowship than very religious-y? I've heard good things about it

(8th ave and 7th???? eh...somewhere around there)

I also thought to suggest the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture (on PPW), though I've not yet visited. I was at a benefit for the New York Society for Ethical Culture last night, and the clergyman (or "leader") was very friendly and passionate about ethical action as a semi-religious orientation... The place and the people reminded me a great deal of Quakers I've had contact with, a group with which I have more than a passing familiarity, and whom I generally admire. Different groups of Friends are more or less secular -- I attended a Quaker-founded camp that was entirely secular and, incidentally, life-changing -- but in my experience all are very tolerant of wherever you're coming from. There is a Friends Meeting House a few blocks from Brooklyn Borough Hall, and I know there are other active groups in Manhattan as well. Good luck. I'd be interested to hear if you find a place you like.

http://www.venganza.org/

No. Basically I want to go to church; put on sensible, nice shoes, listen to a talk, interact with like-minded people over bad coffee, hold friend's babies, sing songs, make casseroles for people with cancer, and do community outreach. Church, but without the "there is a deity in the sky" bit, a thought I find entirely unpalatable.

Without the "deity in the sky" thing, what's the talk going to be about?

Perhaps a Unitarian church? They kind of do almost literary criticism instead of theology.

Flexichick wrote: Isn't United Methodist (?) church more like a fellowship than very religious-y? I've heard good things about it

(8th ave and 7th???? eh...somewhere around there)

The United Methodist on 8th ave and 6th street is one that is religious BUT i would wager there were maybe 10% of people who weren't believers of a higher being and more a connected-ness between all people in the world. It is one of the most liberal (in both policy and beliefs) churches i've attended and i've attended a good deal of churches which most people would think were more fellowship than worship. i think, in this church's case, you can take out of it what you want. they do a lot of service, community activity, and fellowship. I would go every sunday in a heartbeat if it didn't take me so long to get there in the morning.

i'm very interested in ethical culture, and i've been to some functions at their gorgeous building on PPW.

may sound dumb but i felt really, really young there. out of place young, and i was in my late 30s at the time. i love the whole ethos, but i'd been hoping to find a place with people in my age range

The Unitarian Universalist church is a free-thinking church; non-creedal religion. There is a church in Brooklyn Heights, http://www.fuub.org. The Unitarian Universalist Association also has a website where you can read more about UU, http://www.uua.org/.

i've never been to UU but been curious. are many people atheists?

but do their services include references about god?

eseveral friends are very involved in the Unitarian Church in the Heights, and from what i have seen of it the community is very much "anything goes" in terms of your level of religiousity. they really more believe in social justice as the passion in life.