I fear that part of my comment was not entirely clear...

Let me ask you this: do you actually want to group bond? This is quite a separate question from "based on research, I believe group bonding will make me happier".

For myself, I sometimes think: "Hm, I like this person/these people; they are cool and interesting. I enjoy hanging out with them, and intend to continue doing so in the future."

I can't imagine myself thinking "Hm, I want to group bond with some people/these people. What can I do that will have that effect?"

That is, group bonding seems to be the goal here. Is it actually something that you directly want, or is this a case of "research says that it will make me happier, and I want to be happier, so I will do this"?

P.S. As for the church goers... yes, I can believe that they are happier (although that's "happier on average", right?). I don't think we should therefore conclude that they have the right idea about this whole ritual-as-group-bonding thing.