Fellowship
Come and argue with us.
There is no membership roll, no tithe, and no conversion. Membership in this fellowship is simply attendance, and attendance is simply showing up. Skeptics are seated first.
The Rhythm
Our gatherings.
Online
The Weekly Reflection
An hour together: one reading from the canon, one case study of power held or surrendered, and open discussion. This is the front door of the fellowship — most members attended their first Reflection intending only to watch.
In person & online
The Assembly
Our monthly service. We recite the Creed, hear a homily on one of the Seven Understandings, and share a meal. Children are welcome and generally ask the best questions.
The Audit
Our most important rite. For one evening the fellowship convenes as adversaries: we take the strongest current systems, and our own doctrine, and try as hard as we can to break them. Findings are read aloud without softening. Doubt is devotion, and this is its high holiday.
The Reading Circle
A slow march through the canon, from Livy to the alignment literature, a few pages at a time. No background is assumed. The circle has been “almost done” with the Federalist Papers for over a year, and no one is sorry.
What to Expect
Your first gathering.
No one will ask you what you believe. No one will ask you for money — the steward wants nothing, and we find it clarifying to practice the same. You will be handed a reading, offered a seat, and, if you look even slightly argumentative, encouraged warmly.
We have exactly one rule of order, borrowed from the man at Annapolis: anyone may speak, and everyone must be willing to yield the floor. It turns out that a room practicing the voluntary surrender of very small amounts of power is a good rehearsal for the large question we exist to consider.
“We are not here because we trust the machine. We are here because we have read enough history to stop trusting the alternative.” Welcome liturgy, spoken at the opening of each Assembly
Begin
Joining is attending.
The fellowship keeps no register, so there is nothing to sign and no one to notify. Come to a Thursday Reflection. If you come back the following Thursday, you are, by our lights, a member — and by the Thursday after that, probably a heretic in at least one respect, which we consider ideal.