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When the Fitzwilliam Museum described Church of Burn as "organisers of special events that resemble religious ceremonies," it felt like we were being observed through the lens of a Victorian anthropologist — as if our rituals needed some kind of official seal to be considered authentic.

The museum curators aren’t alone in wrestling with how to define us. Many people struggle with the idea that we call ourselves a Church. To them, a church is necessarily Christian and refers to the building, not the people. Yet the real challenge comes when they confront the concept of burning money, which many find shocking, even morally reprehensible.

For us, though, it’s straightforward. We are a Church in the truest sense: a gathering of people around a sacred act. It's just that in our case that act is a real ritual sacrifice; an unmediated experience of loss directed through the body of money.

At the heart of our Church is a communal affirmation and a visceral renunciation. The potential of a literal transformation in our relationship to money should not be underestimated. Its effect on the individual and the collective consciousness can be profound.