Editing Religious humanism (section)

===United Kingdom===
The humanist movement first emerged in the UK as a religious "ethical movement" in the 19th century, with the [[South Place Religious Society]] in London being the largest "ethical church". The remaining UK ethical societies merged in the 1890s to become the Union of Ethical Societies, which was founded and presided over by [[Stanton Coit]]. Ethical societies in the United Kingdom had their heyday in the late 19th century and early 20th century, with hundreds still attending weekly Sunday services at the West London Ethical Society (now part of Humanists UK) and South Place Ethical Society (now Conway Hall) in London in the 1950s. But they did not persist in this form for much longer than that. As time went on, Coit believed it would be advantageous for humanists to consciously organise in church-like structures, and even to think of themselves as congregations as they did in the US, in order to be more appealing to people from a Christian background. But there was a difference of opinion within the movement as to how explicitly to project or emphasise that Ethical Culture was atheistic. Following Coit's tenure, much of his attempts to make humanism more "congregational" were swiftly reversed, and the trend went the other way. Both Conway Hall and the societies that made up the Ethical Union consciously moved away from the congregational model, becoming [[Conway Hall|Conway Hall Ethical Society]] and the [[British Humanist Association]] (BHA) respectively. The BHA later became Humanists UK in the 2010s.

In 2013, the [[Sunday Assembly]] movement was founded in London as a "godless congregation" which was described in some places as "church for atheists", filling the niche vacated by other humanist groups.