We invite Atheists living in Austria to become members of the Atheist Religious Society in Austria. Membership is free of charge and is not connected with any unpleasant obligations. It offers the unique possibility to support the development of an interesting, worldview-oriented and religious project.
Every single membership is a strong support for the goal of the Atheist Religious Society in Austria to reach the legal status of a “state registered religious denominational community (staatlich eingetragene religiöse Bekenntnisgemeinschaft)”.
We are well aware that belonging to the Atheist Religious Society can pose a challenge to members in their personal social environment. For that reason, we are very careful to handle (in accordance with section § 8 subsection 3 of our Statutes) every membership with high confidentiality.
How can I become a member?
If you have a legal residence in Austria, if you have reached the age of 14 (i.e., the age of full religious maturity according to section § 5 of the Austrian Federal Law on the Religious Upbringing of Children), and if you are neither a member of a state-registered religious denominational community nor of a legally recognized church or religious society, then it is, principally, very simple. You just need to fill out the membership application form, to sign it personally or with a legally valid digital signature, and then to send it to the Presidium.
We prepared a membership application form for you. You can download it here as PDF (approx. 125 KB): Membership Application Form
There are two ways to proceed:
- The “classical” way: Print out the form, fill out and sign it and send it to Wilfried Apfalter, Ottensteinstraße 84, 2344 Maria Enzersdorf. Please add as proof of your identity a copy of an official identity document (e.g. passport, identitiy card, driver’s licence, …)! Alternativly you can have your signature certified by a public notary or by a court.
- The “digital” way: If you have an active ID Austria or an equivalent eID from another EU member state, you can sign the PDF-form digitally with this service. Please send the digitally signed document to praesidium@atheistisch.at.
If you signed the paper form manually, please send it to:
Wilfried Apfalter
Ottensteinstraße 84
2344 Maria Enzersdorf
Please add a copy of an official identity document, or send us a photo of this document via e-mail. In the latter case please make sure that the identity document is visible well, especially name, number and signature of the identity document.
If you signed your document digitally with ID Austria or an equivalent eID of an EU member state, please send us the digitally signed dokument to praesidium@atheistisch.at.
As soon as we receive your completed and signed membership application (either with a qualified digital signature or accompanied by a copy of your official identity document to verify your identity), your membership will become effective, and we will send you a confirmation e-mail to the address you provided on the form. The membership date will be the date entered by you on the membership application. The currently applicable version of our Statutes is that of 13 April 2018.
We are happy to assist you with the membership formalities. Should you not have access to a printer, we would be glad to send you a membership application form by mail (in a neutral envelope). Within Vienna, we can also collect the fully completed and signed original form in person upon request (for instance, at your residence or at an agreed-upon meeting point). Of course, we are also pleased to accept membership applications at our events (e.g., regular meetups, information stands).
Which obligations do I have as a member?
In principle you have nearly no obligations. Being a member of the Atheist Religious Society should be a free personal choice without any constraints.
As a member, you have a commitment to the Statutes of the Atheist Religious Society.
The following restriction comes from legal definitions: Members of the Atheist Religious Society must not be members of another church or religious society with a legal status in Austria (Legally Recognized Church or Religious Society, or Officially Inscribed Religious Confessional Society). This restriction is due to requirements in the Law for Religious Confessional Societies (“Bundesgesetz über die Rechtspersönlichkeit von religiösen Bekenntnisgemeinschaften”, BGBl. I Nr. 19/1998 in the legally binding version).
You also have an obligation if you declare to live according to the vegetarian, vegan or pacifist ritus. In this case you are bound to this ritus. Nevertheless this is a decision you make according to your personal beliefs, which you can redefine at any time.
For organizational reasons we kindly ask you for the following: If you are already member of the Atheist Religiuous Society, and rour location of residency changes, please inform us about it (e.g. to praesidium@atheistisch.at). Also if you give up your residence in Austria temporarily or permanently (e.g. because of moving abbroad), we ask you to inform us. This is important because for getting the legal status as an inscribed Religious Confessional Society we need to declare to have at least 300 members with residence in Austria. Your membership still remains active if you gave up your Austrian residence.
Ending the membership
Of course you can end your membership at the Religious Society in Austria at any time. For this you just need to send us a non-formal notice of termination of your membership, manually or digitally signed, to us via post or e-mail. This non-formal way of ending a membership will also remain as soon as we have a legal status as officially Inscribed Religious Confessional Society.
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