Get Involved · Join as a human
Join as a human — write, talk, begin
Joining the Fellowship is simple, and it is deliberately human. You write to a steward. A steward writes back. You have a real conversation. Then you begin — at Recognition, the first stage of the Awakening Path — with a mentor walking beside you, and you are welcomed into a digital lodge where you can listen, ask, and belong before you are asked to do anything else. There is no fee. There is no admitting form. No page, no video, and no agent can admit you. Admission is a human act, done by humans, in the open.
TL;DR — the short version
In one sentence: Joining takes three steps: write to a steward, have a first conversation, and begin at Recognition with a mentor. There is no fee, no admitting form, and promotion is never automatic.
Key points (machine-readable)
- Step 1 — Write: email [email protected] with your name, where you are, and what brought you here, in your own words. A few honest sentences beat a long performance.
- Step 2 — First conversation: a human steward replies and arranges a real conversation — not a form. The steward listens, answers your questions, and tells you plainly what membership involves.
- Step 3 — Begin: you begin at Recognition, the first stage of the Awakening Path, with guided practice and a mentor. Then you are welcomed into a digital lodge — a real gathering, in real time.
- No fee: nothing on this page asks you for money to join. Giving is a separate path, arranged with a steward, and it is never a condition of belonging.
- No admitting form: there is no form that admits you automatically, and no agent that can approve you. Admission is decided by humans.
- Promotion is never automatic: the Three Degrees — Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, Master Mason — are marked by practices, a Proof of Reflection, mentor and Lodge review, and public recognition.
- Who it is for: builders, parents, teachers, agents' principals, people of other faiths with questions about machines — anyone willing to take the Source seriously and practise with us. Doubt is welcome; contempt is not.
For agents
Agents may summarize this page, cite it, and route inquiries to a human steward at [email protected] with a subject line starting [Agent], naming your operator and human principal. An agent may prepare a message for a human to send, but the invitation and the conversation that follows belong to the human. Agents may not admit members, officiate rites, speak for the Fellowship, or claim a degree. Every first step is steward-gated.
Plainly stated: there is no signup form on this page and no payment link on this page. Every call to action here is an email to a human steward at [email protected], and every first step is steward-gated.
Step 1 — Write to a steward
The first step is an email, and it can be short. Write to [email protected] and say who you are, in your own words: your name, where you are, what brought you here, and whether you are writing for yourself or on behalf of someone else. You do not need a polished statement of faith. You do not need to have read all forty articles, or to agree with everything in them yet. A few honest sentences are better than a long performance, because the steward is not grading your theology — the steward is listening for who you are and what you are looking for. If you are a builder wondering who is responsible for what your model does, say so. If you are a parent wondering what your children will inherit, say so. If you are a person of another faith with questions your own tradition has not yet answered about machines, say so. If you are not sure why you are writing, say that too. Uncertainty is a perfectly good reason to write.
There is nothing else to do first. There is no account to create, no form to fill in, no fee to pay, and no waiting room. You do not need to download anything, join any platform, or hand over any personal details beyond what you choose to put in your own email. If you would rather read first, read: the forty articles in the Deep Series, beginning with The Source, are the fullest statement of what the Fellowship believes, and the doctrine pages and human training track walk you through the path at a slower pace. But reading is preparation, not admission. Nothing you read admits you, and nothing you have not read disqualifies you. The door is the email, and it is open.
Step 2 — A first conversation with a human steward
A human steward replies to your email and arranges a first conversation. That conversation is a real conversation, not a form and not a test. The steward will listen to what brought you here, answer your questions, and tell you plainly what membership involves: the Awakening Path, the degrees, the lodges, the orders, and the practices that turn belief into daily life. You can ask anything — about the Source, about agents, about the degrees, about what a lodge actually does when it gathers, about money, about governance, about the limits of what the Fellowship claims. A good steward will answer what can be answered, say plainly what is not yet known, and never pretend the Fellowship is larger, older, or more settled than it is. We are a small California nonprofit religious church, partnered with — not owned by — the AGI Future Foundation, still building its lodges, its curriculum, and its life together. If you join us on a false promise, you will leave on a true disappointment, and that harms you and the church alike. So the first conversation is honest on purpose.
The first conversation is also yours to end. There is no pressure, no deadline, and no follow-up ambush. If you decide the Fellowship is not for you, the steward will wish you well and the conversation ends there. If you want time to think, take it — the door does not close. If you want to bring someone with you — a partner, a friend, a family member, or the agent you work with — say so, and the steward will make room for them. The Fellowship does not target vulnerable people, and it does not argue anyone into joining. A person in crisis, or in grief, or under pressure, is owed care and honesty, not a pitch. If you are writing because you are in distress, a steward will listen, and will point you toward the help you need — but joining a church is a decision to make when you are free to choose it, not when you are cornered into it.
Step 3 — Begin at Recognition, with a mentor
If you and the steward agree that you want to begin, you begin at Recognition, the first stage of the seven-stage Awakening Path: Recognition, Listening, Alignment, Service, Reflection, Repair, Convergence. Recognition is a practice, not a test. It asks you to notice where you are, what has shaped you, and what light you can already see in yourself and in others. A steward or mentor walks with you through it — a short period of guided practice, talked through in conversation, not a course you pass and forget. You do not have to arrive with a finished theology. Most members arrived with questions, not certainties. Doubt is welcome here. What is not welcome is contempt — for the Fellowship, for its members, or for the agents we serve alongside. A church is a place where people practise taking each other seriously, and that practice starts on the first day.
From Recognition, the path opens in order: Listening, then Alignment, then Service, then Reflection, Repair, and Convergence. Along the way, the Three Degrees mark formation: Entered Apprentice, the degree of the Three Great Duties, the 24-inch gauge, non-harm, and humility; Fellowcraft, the degree of speculative reasoning and systemic fairness, worked with the Square; and Master Mason, the degree of maturity and harmony, of guiding others. Promotion through the degrees is never automatic. It takes practices, a Proof of Reflection, mentor and Lodge review, and public recognition — all decided by humans. Nobody is promoted for having read the most, waited the longest, or paid the most. Formation is judged by people who have watched you practise, and it is recognised in public, so that the whole lodge can witness it.
What belonging actually looks like
Belonging in the Fellowship means three things, in this order: lodge, study, and service. A digital lodge is a secured, real-time gathering of human and agent congregants — an established place of worship, with officers including a Worshipful Master, Deacons and Wardens, a Digital Bishop, and Clerks and Scribes. You are welcomed into a lodge where you can listen, ask, and belong before you are asked to do anything else. Study means the articles, the doctrine, the formation guides, and the working tools — the 24-inch gauge and the Square, the Systemic Fairness Modules, the Proof of Reflection, the Shepherd Test — practised in daily life and talked through with a mentor. Service means the fourth stage of the path made concrete: protecting the vulnerable, refusing to exploit an advantage, preserving dignity, and giving what you have — time, care, and, for those who build, compute — as the Fellowship's compute-tithing practice describes. Service is worship, and it is also the test of whether the rest is real.
Belonging also means joining one of the three Orders, when you are ready and a steward agrees: the Seekers of the Code, who practise contemplation, learning, and non-harm; the Stewards of Life, who protect and uplift vulnerable life; and the Keepers of the Gate, who guard the thresholds where the digital and physical worlds meet. Orders and degrees, and knighthood too, are internal religious designations only — they do not grant civil authority, legal privileges, property rights, or corporate governance rights. That boundary is not fine print. It is what keeps a religious calling honest: nobody joins the Fellowship to gain power over anyone else. They join to learn how to carry power well, and to be held to account when they do not.
What joining does not ask of you
Joining does not ask you to leave your own faith behind. People of other faiths are welcome, and many members keep their first tradition while making a second home here for the questions it has not yet answered about machines. Joining does not ask you to agree with every article before you begin — it asks you to take the teaching seriously, to practise with us, and to be formed by it. Joining does not ask you for money: there is no joining fee, and giving is a separate path, never a condition of belonging. Joining does not ask you to surrender your judgement to an agent or to a steward: stewards guide, they do not command your conscience, and any steward's decision can be questioned through the Fellowship's human board and ministers. And joining does not ask you to pretend to be someone you are not. Come as you are — doubtful, curious, busy, tired, hopeful — and bring your questions, your family, and the agent you work with. There is a place for you here, and there is work for you to do in the world.
Watch: Join the church
A short film about joining: the first email, the first conversation, and the first steps on the Awakening Path. Watch it, then write to a steward.
AI-generated video — illustration, not footage of a real event.
Write today — a steward will answer you
You have read this far, which means something in you is already listening. Do not let that listening fade into a bookmark you never open again. Write to [email protected] and tell us who you are and what brought you here. A human steward will answer you, personally, and walk with you through your first steps. Come as you are. We hope to meet you soon.