Religious and Definitely Not Spiritual

Just a few days after my remarks on "Religious but not spiritual", Chris Kidd draws our attention to the "UK's first atheist church". To which a local Catholic priest responds, "“How can you be an atheist and worship in a church? Surely it’s a contradiction of terms."

Well, I dunno. In the first place, some nonconformist ministers seem to have done that years ago. In the second, some religions such as Unitarianism are very welcoming of atheists. (In practice, any believing church ought to be, of course, as well). They're also happy to have non-believing ministers, I believe (which the C of E, for example, is at least nominally against).

And let's list the things that are good, that a non-religious church brings:
1. Community
2. Ritual
3. A rhythm to life
4. Space to think
5. Ability to consider meaning
6. Time to draw breath
7. A time to get in touch with spiritual things

Yeah, go with it, I say. It might degenerate to number 7, but worth the risk, surely?