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5:00 pm, September 25 2025

Sunday Assembly Glasgow Gathering 2025: our cross-border community!

Sunday Assembly’s annual global conference! This was an opportunity to meet people from all over the world in Glasgow on 25th – 28th September.

As described by our hosts, Sunday Assembly Glasgow:

‘Every year members of different Sunday Assemblies across the UK, Europe and America come together in celebration, through a programme of talks, workshops and activities, that help us live by our motto to Live Better, Help Often and Wonder More. This year, we at Sunday Assembly Glasgow are excited to host the gathering and welcome people to our incredible city.

The conference is open to any Sunday Assembly members or supporters, and anyone interested in celebrating life with us. Children are welcome but must have their own ticket and anyone under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a responsible adult. We can’t wait to see you all!

Expect wonder-provoking talks, interactive workshops, and carefully curated activities that will help you build connections, live better and make the most of your time in Scotland. There’ll be something for everyone, whether you’re an organiser looking to develop your assembly, an assembly member looking to feel more connected to our network, or if you simply want to come along and celebrate life with like-minded people. And of course, there’ll be plenty of fun, food, singing and live music from a mega band of Sunday Assembly musicians from around the world.

If finding affordable accommodation is an issue then please get in touch. We have some members with spare rooms that may be able to offer a bed for the weekend. Send us a message on Instagram or by email hello@sundayassemblyglasgow.com and we will do our very best to find a place for you.

For those who are considering buying tickets, there is an incentive to buy soon: anyone buying a full priced weekend ticket between now and the end of August will be entered into a draw to win 2 Ceilidh tickets for Sloan’s Ceilidh on the Friday night of the gathering. It’s a great night, lots of fun in a beautiful historical building in the heart of the city.

The Glasgow Gathering is for members from around the world, as well as those who are new to Sunday Assembly and interested in learning, celebrating and making connections with us. So if you have friends who are interested in Sunday Assembly but can’t commit to regular meetings, please do bring them along.

There are also some subsidised tickets available at the very reduced rate of £40, for those who may not otherwise be able to attend.

These tickets may be purchased by those who meet one of the following criteria:

In full time education; Not receiving a waged income; Receiving income support (including pension credit), government assistance or other social security support.

(Subsidised tickets are very limited and you may only book one per order. If you’re not sure whether you qualify please get in touch to check.).’

Find out more at sundayassemblyglasgowgathering.com

Main Events Past events

11:00 am, September 7 2025

Fight the Good Fight: How to Have Conflict

Conflict is unavoidable in life: in our relationships with family, friends, colleagues or and strangers. How can we manage it better?

Our guest speaker: Katie Goldfinch

Katie Goldfinch is a broadcaster, mediator and host of the podcast How Not to F*** Up Your Kids.

Katie specialises in conflict resolution for neighbourhood disputes and intergenerational family dynamics. She is also currently working on a global peace building project with the Institute of Global Negotiation to disseminate conflict resolutions tools internationally.

By encouraging us to explore our own and each others’ definitions of conflict, and to practise active listening, Katie helped to us to understand how we can improve the quality and outcome of conflict at the personal level.

Get a ticket for Katie’s free conflict resolution workshop on 25th September

Our guest poet: Yvonne Murray

Yvonne is a Murray poet, inspirational motivator and author who loves to manipulate words into stories, hurts into lessons and to empathise with those who share similar paths.

Yvonne read three of her poems, Peace in Pieces, Punchbag and Fight the Fight Good, moving us with her imagery and empathy. The third poem was specially written for our assembly.

Find out more about the launch of Yvonne’s new poetry collection on 25th October

Our songs

As usual, there were four pop songs performed by our Sunday Assembly London band. They reflected today’s theme of conflict.

Eye Of The Tiger – Survivor
Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting – Elton John
We Can Work It Out – The Beatles
Shake It Off – Taylor Swift

About Sunday Assembly London

Sunday Assembly London is your regular and reliable stop for a welcoming, accessible and inspiring Sunday community, where you can hear talks and poetry, sing songs and make new friends.

Stay after for tea, biscuits, and chat in the Backyard Comedy Club. Then join us for a local meal, picnic, or a drink and card games at the pub.

→ Our next assembly: Weird Science: An Introduction to Anomalistic Psychology, 21st September
← Our previous assembly: Conversations on Kindness: How the Power of Kindness can Change the World, 20th July

Not just Sunday Assemblies Past events

12:15 pm, August 30 2025

Summer Sync-Up activities: Stay connected throughout August

Did you know that some animals hibernate in summer?* That wouldn’t suit us at Sunday Assembly London. While our assemblies were taking a break in August, we had an array of Sunday events to keep us connected.

Sunday 3rd August: picnic; ice cream crawl

At 12pm, we got together in Lincoln’s Inn Fields (near Holborn Tube station) for a bring-your-own picnic lunch.

Then we walked a route around London to sample a series of ice cream treats. We had a delightful ice cream crawl in September 2024 and couldn’t wait to do it again.

We met at 3pm opposite Kentish Town Station (Tube – Northern line; the National Rail Thameslink station is next door) at 3pm. Anyone who wanted to skip straight to dessert was welcome to come along without being at the picnic first!

Sunday 10th August: Lido swimming

A refreshing swim at the Serpentine Lido.

Sunday 17th August: picnic; art walk

At 12pm, we were back at Lincoln’s Inn Fields for another bring-your-own picnic lunch.

We enjoyed the “world turned upside down” near LSE and the Wellcome Collection’s current inclusive exhibitions are fantastic.

Saturday 30th August: walking adventure in Box Hill, Surrey

Emily ran a very special event for those of us wanting to adventure a little bit further afield than Central London.

Meeting at Box Hill & Westhumble station at 12:15pm, we embarked on a 5 mile walk.

Moderate difficulty – see National Trust classification
Dogs and Children welcome – we go at a leisurely pace

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/surrey/box-hill/box-hill-juniper-top-circular-walk

As we said beforehand: ‘We’d love as many people as possible to join us for some or all of these activities, even if you’ve never been to a Sunday Assembly before. We know it’s not always easy to make and keep connections in London, so we’re waiting to welcome you!’

If you want to find out more about our not-just-assemblies events, email Tanya at community@sundayassembly.com. Or, as with our assemblies, just turn up!

*Aestivation? We don’t know the meaning of the word…

→ Our next assembly: Fight the Good Fight: How to Have Conflict, 7th September
← Our previous assembly: Conversations on Kindness: How the Power of Kindness can Change the World, 20th July

Not just Sunday Assemblies Past events

7:30 pm, August 7 2025

Article Club: August 2025

Article Club is where the Sunday Assembly London community read a diverse range of articles, share them with like-minded people and deal with our anxiety that we aren’t reading books.

This was our 71st meeting but it’s never too late to join! Just like at our assemblies, we love welcoming new members and their unique opinions.

How Article Club works

1. We meet every six weeks or so in the National Theatre building in Central London by the river. We go for the round seats in the Lyttelton Theatre bar on the first floor.

2. We vote in advance and pick two articles from a short list to read before we meet. Usually one relates to politics/current affairs and the other to history, culture or science.

Our 7th August articles:

Is Just Stop Oil actually over – or is something more extreme on the horizon?

Cecil Rhodes and the abuse of History

3. We talk about each one for around half an hour. The beauty of Article Club is that we can think more deeply about the broader themes of a topic, and how well the article gets to grips with them.

4. We each give a score out of 10 for the articles that have been discussed.

5. We set the date for the next Article Club and sometimes adjourn to the pub.

Our next Article Club will be on Thursday 18th September at 7:30pm.

And to meet more of the Sunday Assembly London community while learning about a new or familiar topic, you’re always welcome at our Sunday Assemblies too!

Main Events Past events

11:00 am, July 20 2025

Conversations on Kindness: How the Power of Kindness can Change the World

Here at Sunday Assembly London, kindness is one of the qualities that we value the most and try to cultivate within our community and beyond. Today we welcomed expert on kindness to help us continue to spread the love!

Our guest speaker: Bernadette Russell

Bernadette Russell is a storyteller, performer, and expert on kindness and hope. For over a decade she has toured the US and UK speaking about the life-changing experience of practising kindness. This was her fifth time speaking at Sunday Assembly London.

With wit and poignancy, Bernadette told us about how London’s 2011 riots inspired her to spend the following year doing an act of kindness every day, touching others’ lives and her own in unexpected ways. She extended her kindness to us by giving us sunflowers and teacakes!

Our guest poet: Adam Lind

Adam Lind gave us the rare privilege of hearing him perform his poetry. He connected with us through three authentic poems whose themes included perceptions of masculinity and setting an example to future generations.

Thank you to Bernadette and Adam for being so appreciative of our Sunday Assembly London community. Their latest books, Conversations on Kindness and Floating Home, are available via our online bookshop.

Our songs

As usual, there were four pop songs performed by our Sunday Assembly London band. They reflected today’s theme of acts of kindness.

With A Little Help From My Friends – The Beatles
All The Small Things – Blink 182
Lean On Me – Bill Withers
Shine – Take That

About Sunday Assembly London

Sunday Assembly London is your regular and reliable stop for a welcoming, accessible and inspiring Sunday community, where you can hear talks and poetry, sing songs and make new friends.

Stay after for tea, biscuits, and chat in the Backyard Comedy Club. Then join us for a local meal, picnic, or a drink and card games at the pub.

→ Our next assembly: Fight the Good Fight: How to Have Conflict, 7th September (after our August break)
← Our previous assembly: The Outside Project: Creating an LGBTIQ+ Safe Haven, 6th July

Main Events Past events

11:00 am, July 6 2025

The Outside Project: Creating an LGBTIQ+ Safe Haven

Live Better is a value we hold dear at Sunday Assembly London, but what if your dream turns to crisis? Many LGBTIQ+ people move to London to live as themselves and find connection among a larger population – only to struggle without stable work, housing and social networks. One special organisation has led the way in helping them since 2017.

Our guest speaker: Carla Ecola, The Outside Project

The Outside Project was founded as the UK’s first shelter, centre and domestic abuse refuge for the LGBTIQ+ community. This London Pride weekend, we were honoured to welcome The Outside Project’s co-founder and director Carla Ecola.

Carla is a queer homelessness activist who saw the gap in crisis services for LGBTIQ+ people whilst working as an Outreach Worker in their twenties.

We found out how they support LGBTIQ+ people in London without a home or a place to feel safe – driven by Carla and the team’s own personal experiences – and hear about the challenges they’re facing today.

Our guest poet: Annie Hayter

We were also thrilled to have some spoken word from Annie Hayter, who delights in writing about queer transformations and flatulent saints. Their work has been found in The Big Issue, Rialto, MAGMA, Time Out, and on BBC Radio 3.

Annie’s verses took us from grandparents to geese with a blend of lightness, elegance and honesty.

Today’s songs

The Outside Project takes its name from a George Michael song. In celebration of that, our Sunday Assembly London band performed four pop songs from LGBTIQ+ artists for us to sing our hearts out to. It was hard for some of us to resist a dash of dancing too.

Love Shack – The B-52’s
A Little Respect – Erasure
Pink Pony Club – Chappell Roan
Freedom! ’90 – George Michael

As always, we projected the lyrics for everyone to follow. But if you’re not into singing, there’s no pressure at all to join in.

About Sunday Assembly London

Sunday Assembly London is your regular and reliable stop for a welcoming, accessible and inspiring Sunday community, where you can hear talks and poetry, sing songs and make new friends.

We’re proud to host events where LGBTIQ+ members, volunteers, speakers and poets give each other a sense of belonging within a secular community that welcomes all.

After the assembly

We invite everyone to stay after for tea, biscuits, and chat in the Backyard Comedy Club. Then to join us for a local meal, picnic, or a drink and card games at the pub.

Our lunch venue this time was Love Shack, a wonderfully welcoming vegan restaurant that recently joined the Safe Space London directory of trans-friendly businesses. (We chose the venue, then we chose the song!)

→ Our next assembly: Conversations on Kindness: How the Power of Kindness Can Change the World, 20th July

What if one small act of kindness, every single day for a year, could ignite a light in the darkness? Bernadette Russell gives us an insight into her extraordinary 366-day journey of discovery and connection.

What’s happening in August?

August is when we take a break from hosting assemblies, but not from being a community! We have a range of other get-togethers. They include picnics in Lincoln’s Inn Fields on 3rd and 17th August, lido swimming, Article Club and an ice cream crawl. Keep an eye on this page and our social media for details.

We love hearing your ideas too, so please post them on our social media or email us anytime!

→ Our next assembly: The Choir With No Name, 5th October
← Our previous assembly: Fight the Good Fight: How to Have Conflict, 7th September

Not just Sunday Assemblies Past events

1:00 pm, July 6 2025

A little old place where we can eat together: lunch at Love Shack!

Thanks to everyone who joined us after our Dolphins assembly on 15th June for lunch. We did it again after our Pride assembly on 6th July!

In honour of our speaker Carla Ecola and their topic, the UK’s first LGBTIQ+ shelter, our lunch venue was Love Shack. Right up the road from Sunday Assembly London, Love Shack is a wonderfully welcoming vegan restaurant that recently joined the Safe Space London directory of trans-friendly businesses.

We had one of our biggest Lunch Club turnouts in a while! Thanks to everyone who joined us to celebrate our community, the LGBTIQ+ community and the local East London community.

With so many delicious food and drink options, we’re looking forward to our next visit already!

Not just Sunday Assemblies Past events

7:30 pm, June 26 2025

Article Club: June 2025

Article Club is where the Sunday Assembly London community read a diverse range of articles, share them with like-minded people and deal with our anxiety that we aren’t reading books.

This was our 70th meeting but it’s never too late to join! Just like at our assemblies, we love welcoming new members and their unique opinions.

How Article Club works

1. We meet every six weeks or so in the National Theatre building in Central London by the river. We go for the round seats in the Lyttelton Theatre bar on the first floor.

2. We vote in advance and pick two articles from a short list to read before we meet. Usually one relates to politics/current affairs and the other to history, culture or science. Our chosen articles this time were:

All eyes are on Reform right now – but why are they given so much influence?
Zoe Williams, The Guardian, 21st April 2025
‘A strong progressive vote in local elections will be written off as random or outlying, while rightwing insurgency is considered to indicate some fundamental truth’

The rise and fall of peer review
Adam Mastroianni, Experimental History 13th December 2022
‘Why the greatest scientific experiment in history failed, and why that’s a great thing’

3. We talk about each one for around half an hour. The beauty of Article Club is that we can think more deeply about the broader themes of a topic, and how well the article gets to grips with them.

4. We each give a score out of 10 for the articles that have been discussed.

5. We set the date for the next Article Club (if we hadn’t already) and sometimes adjourn to the pub.

Our next two Article Clubs will be:

Thursday 7 August at 7:30pm
Thursday 18 September at 7:30pm

To meet more of the Sunday Assembly London community while learning about a new or familiar topic, you’re always welcome at our Sunday Assemblies too!

Main Events Past events

11:00 am, June 15 2025

Dolphins: Their World and Ours

Exploring our value Wonder More inspires us not only to look around at our own world but also to look into other realms, such as outer space and, today, beneath the waves.

Guest speaker: Pavan Kaur Virdee

In honour of World Ocean Day on 8th June, we were joined by London based marine biologist Pavan Kaur Virdee, who shared her life-long passion and knowledge about the world of dolphins. Pavan’s presentation introduced us to cetaceans found in UK waters, from playful bottlenose dolphins to mysterious minke whales.

We also heard how the ocean is under threat from noise pollution and plastic pollution, and how we can help. Even two minutes spent picking up plastic litter can help keep it out of rivers, away from the ocean and ultimately out of a food chain that leads to humans ingesting a credit card’s worth of microplastics every week.

Guest poet: Kay Scorah

We were delighted that Sunday Assembly London’s own Kay Scorah stepped in at short notice with specially written dolphin-themed verses.

Read Kay’s dolphin day poems in her blog

Today’s songs

We sang along to four pop songs performed by our Sunday Assembly London band, all with connections to the ocean waves:

Wellerman – Nathan Evans
Surfin’ USA – Beach Boys
Octopus’ Garden – The Beatles
Heroes – David Bowie (the lyrics mention dolphins!)

The return of our bubble machine added to the fun!

As always, we followed the assembly with tea, biscuits and chat at the Backyard Comedy Club, lunch locally (taking advantage of the picnic-friendly weather), and drinks & games at The Three Colts pub.

Thanks to our host Shane; co-host Matt; all our wonderful volunteers from tech to tea, and everyone who filled the room with singing, good energy and appreciation – especially our first-timers!

If you enjoyed yourself, please spread the word by sharing our social media posts or tagging us in your posts.

Coming up at Sunday Assembly London

The Outside Project: Creating an LGBTIQ+ Safe Haven, 6th July

The Outside Project was founded as the UK’s first shelter, centre and domestic abuse refuge for the LGBTIQ+ community. Hear from co-founder and director Carla Ecola about how their team have been working since 2017 to support LGBTIQ+ people in London without a home or a place to feel safe – driven by their own personal experiences.

Conversations on Kindness: How the Power of Kindness can Change the World, 20th July

← Our previous assembly: Craftivism: The Art of Gentle Protest, 1st June

News

Leaf us a message: Mental Health Awareness Week 2025

Community was the theme of Mental Health Awareness Week this year. As it came to a close on 18th May, we asked our attendees and volunteers to tell us how the Sunday Assembly London community has impacted them and their wellbeing.

To do this, we invited everyone to ‘leaf us a message’ by writing anonymously on a leaf and add it to our tree.

It was lovely to look through the leaves and see Sunday Assembly London’s deep, continuing impact. Here’s a selection:

The leaves transcribed:

‘SA is amazing for making friends and having fun’

‘SA enables me to be brave and venture away from the familiar shallows, knowing that if the waves are too big or the waves become too strong, there’s a lighthouse there to guide me home’

‘Singing together makes me feel part of something bigger than myself and puts life’s problems in perspective’

‘Making really wonderful friends’

‘First time attendee of Sunday Assembly and I loved the singing. It has been some time since I sung in a group so that was undoubtedly good for my mental health’

‘As a parent, it’s helpful to be able to talk to adults about something other than children but without needing a babysitter’

‘Met lots of wonderful humans over the years’

‘SAL has given me a place to go in Sundays so I don’t spend the day doing nothing’

‘A constant in my life through many twists and turns’

‘Purpose and friendship’

‘People at Sunday Assembly are open to vulnerable conversations and welcome deep discussion as well as much needed laughter. A very positive impact on my mental health’

These messages made us even prouder of our community members, and of those whose contributions have enabled us to sustain Sunday Assembly London since our first assembly in 2013.

Reflecting on our community and volunteers

Learning. Singing. Listening. Chatting. Laughing. Reflecting. Tea-drinking. Lunching. Donating. Volunteering. These are the things that have been making Sunday Assembly London a community for over 12 years.

To everyone who’s been part of our goals to Live Better, Help Often and Wonder More together: thank you.

And in honour of Volunteers’ Week 2025 (2nd-8th June), a word about our volunteers:

Sunday Assembly London is a volunteer-led charity. No single post could do justice to the amount of time, energy and love that our volunteer teams pool to make every assembly happen. Without volunteering, Sunday Assembly London wouldn’t be the thriving, welcoming community we are today. Without volunteering, Sunday Assembly London wouldn’t be. Thank you to all of you (all of us)!

To anyone who hasn’t discovered us yet, we’re waiting to welcome you to our secular get-togethers in East London! Explore our website to see when your next opportunity is and who our guest speaker will be. (Our song choices remain a closely guarded secret until the assembly itself, but guesses based on the theme of the talk are welcome!)

No need to book, no pressure to pay: just turn up and make a donation if you have a good time.

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