The gatherings will be run along the lines of a traditional church service, but the strains of All Things Bright And Beautiful might be swapped for a sing-a-long to Eye Of The Tiger and preaching replaced with a talk on positive thinking.

The first "Sunday Assembly" - as these atheist church services are known - was held in London at the beginning of this year, stemming from an idea by stand-up comedians Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans.

This month and next, they plan to launch another 30 satellite 'congregations' in cities from Leeds to Chicago and Vancouver to Adelaide.

As part of it, the Sunday Assembly will begin to be held on a regular basis for the first time in Scotland, with monthly events in both Glasgow and Edinburgh, where one-off services have previously taken place.

But the idea is divisive within the world of atheism with some calling it barmy and an "aping" of religion.

Robert Concannon, who is helping to organise the Sunday Assembly in Edinburgh, said: "There are lots of communities which are available for people to do the whole angry atheist thing. This is specifically not about that, this is an opportunity to get all the good bits of going to church but without the need for invoking anything supernatural."

He added: "A lot of us are ex-religious who feel the lack of community when you drop the religion."

While details of the service are still being worked out, Concannon said it would involve a speaker, a poetry reading and a moment of silence. In Edinburgh, the service will take place in a city-centre bingo hall.

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But Nick Spencer, research director of Christian think tank Theos, says the idea is not new. "They sprang up a hundred years ago, with people who had lost their Christian faith," he said.

However, Spencer, who will publish a book on the history of atheism next year, said the so-called ethical churches formed in the late 19th century had fizzled out by the 1930s, from a failure to find a common cause.

"I suspect it is quite an urban phenomenon and it is people who lack a sense of community and meaningful relationships in an otherwise anonymous and individualised culture."

Read the full article on heraldscotland.com

image by Amanda Slater