The pastor of Britain’s first atheist church has claimed his congregation has been “kicked out” of the church they were using to worship by “moralistic” Christians.

The Sunday Assembly (SA) has garnered worldwide attention since comedians Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans launched it at The Nave in St Paul’s Church in Canonbury in January to celebrate the wonder of life.

With a tag line “live better, help often, wonder more”, tracks like Bill Withers’ Lean on Me have replaced hymns, and the concept has proved so popular a morning and afternoon service had to be held in the deconsecrated nave in St Paul’s Road which has a capacity of 200.

Although the SA was searching for larger premises, Mr Jones arranged to use the building, owned by the Steiner School, which trustees lease from the Church of England, one last time for their monthly meeting in May.

But he was told last Friday that this wasn’t possible. Mr Jones said: “I’ve heard they’ve taken a moralistic stance against us.

“We’ve always heard there’s a small but vocal minority within the school who think we are up to no good.

“I think it was probably us singing Run, Rabbit Run which put them over the edge.”

He continued: “I just don’t think it’s very nice behaviour no matter what you do, whether you are Christian or not, to tell someone they can do something and at the last minute go back on your word.”

The email received was from Gary Bridgewood, one of the Steiner School trustees, apologising for “messing up” the booking.

He said he had “failed” to make clear the results of a meeting with Mr Jones, and had “upset a considerable number” of his community.

“This is not your fault and I wish it could be different,” he added.

But Mr Bridgewood has since told the Gazette that Mr Jones had got the “wrong end of the stick” and that health and safety reasons were behind the decision.

“The Sunday Assembly is regularly drawing crowds of up to 500 people, if we go beyond capacity we could be held in breach of health and safety law and we would be in very serious trouble,” he said.

“We do wish Sanderson well, he’s tapped into something worldwide with people who want a sense of community, we are living in an age of technology and speed and image and it shows people just want to talk and get together and have a sing-song.”

The SA service on May 5 will be in the British Humanist Society’s Conway Hall in Holborn.

“This exile is temporary, we are going to come back to the community, we just need to find a new home,” he added.