Edinburgh, Scotland - MULTI-FAITH religious services for people who do not go to church are to be held in Edinburgh for the first time.
Four interfaith ministers are to run a fortnightly "universal service of worship" in a Newington community centre.
They expect the congregation to consist mainly of people who believe in God but have become disillusioned with existing religions.
It follows on from Scotland's first marriage carried out by an interfaith minister, which took place at Edinburgh's Royal Botanic Garden last October.
Rather than being based around stories about Jesus Christ, Muhammed or Buddha, the sermons will focus on universal themes such as love, how people can conduct their lives in a peaceful manner, support one another and respect the planet.
There will be prayers, chanting, meditation, inspirational and motivational talks and music.
Reverend Kate Atchley, 61, who is one of the interfaith ministers setting up the service at the Salibury Centre on Salisbury Road, said: "Many people have a sense of spirituality but do not regularly attend a specific church or practice a particular religion.
"There are many people who now feel the sense of being one religion - especially one that teaches that they are the only way - is no longer appropriate. They feel there is one truth, one love, one God - but many parts.
"So they don't feel comfortable devoting themselves to one part."
All of the ministers involved in the services have undergone a two-year-long course at London's Interfaith Seminary, where they learned about all the different religions and also were taught how to write up interfaith "scripts" for events like marriages or baby name-giving services.
The ministers themselves come from a range of different backgrounds. Rev Atchley describes herself as Buddhist-Christian.
Among the other ministers involved are people with Buddhist, Christian and Shemanic backgrounds.
The services, which start on September 17, will run on the first and third Sunday evening of every month and will be hosted by two ministers each day.
The Interfaith Seminary was set up in London in 1996 by Miranda Holden, who trained at New York's "New Seminary". There are now around 250 interfaith ministers in the UK, most of whom operate in England.
The seminary is set to expand in Scotland with a Perth branch set to open later this year for training of new ministers.
Another of the ministers involved in the Edinburgh project is Reverend Natasha Hood, 34, who lives in Tollcross.
She was the first interfaith minister to legally perform an interfaith marriage in Scotland and is looking forward to being involved in the first regular interfaith service. She said: "There does seem to be growing interest in this and people are yearning for different ways to express their spirituality so it's very exciting to have this coming to Edinburgh.
"Many people are in the process of rejecting some of the old traditions but haven't quite found a new way but this will be helping that. We're redefining what works for us and for the people who aren't defined by a religion then this is something new. This isn't as 'way out' as it used to be any more so it's very exciting to be able to continue the development of the interfaith practices."
A spokeswoman for the Church of Scotland said: "Areas of interfaith relationships are something that the Church of Scotland is very interested in.
"In the last couple of years people have been taking a greater interest in spirituality so we are very interested in the work of this group in Edinburgh."