The growing atheist Sunday Assembly movement has held its first general meeting to try to set up a system of church-like management.
Organisers say the process is comparable to the Church of England’s General Synod.
After only 16 months, the UK-based Sunday Assembly predicts it will have 100 congregations in five continents by the end of 2014.
It aims to have a godless congregation in every town, city and village that wants one.
The Sunday Assembly experienced its first schism last year, when members an outpost in New York decided to go it alone following a dispute over different definitions of atheism.
The organisation was founded by a comedian and a musician.
It has applied for charitable status in the UK.