Friday, February 20, 2009

Upper West Side religion

Now that's my idea of church. In our neighborhood is the totally delightful Society for Ethical Culture.

6 comments:

M. Knoester said...

That looks interesting. It's a bit of a commute, otherwise I might look into it. I tend to define myself as a secular humanist (although atheist has more shock value...)

(Nice word verification: aicryph, I don't know what it means yet, but I may come up with something. Or perhaps someone else here will.)

evilganome said...

I would honestly consider attending their services, or meetings or whatever they are. They sound a bit like Unitarians.

Whatever the case, I am willing to cheer on any group that tries to inspire people to actually think.

It sounds much less odious than the brand of Roman Catholicism I was raised with.

Mike said...

Washington is a great place to discover every happy heresy you could imagine. I always liked walking past the very mysterious Church of Two Worlds in Georgetown, which is "spiritualist."

Church of Two Worlds

TED said...

I have heard attending the Society for Ethical Culture services described as halfway between going to a Unitarian Universalist service and staying home with the New York Times.

M. Knoester said...

That sounds right up my alley, then!

This Sunday is our monthly Unitarian Universalist meeting, we're having the druids over. They are regulars. Last year we ended up in a circle in the church' back garden.

Anonymous said...

I think it is probably an outgrowth of the first wave of atheism in modern society. In the nineteenth century the only model they had were "churches" where you held a Sunday service, gave money for the relief of the poor, heard an uplifting sermon etc. The founding fathers and mothers of this organisation used that model to set up their own organisation. It was the respectable end of the 19th century atheist movement who had been attacked for: not doing anything on a Sunday - what distinguishes an atheist from a slacker? not doing enough for the poor etc.

Interesting to see them in action at:

http://www.nysec.org/sitemap/about-ethical-culture/links/french-news-clip/