Main Events

In August 2024, environmentalist and barrister, Paul Powlesland made history, by becoming the first member of a UK jury to swear an oath on a river – his beloved River Roding, where he both lives and spends time restoring. A co-founder of the River Roding Trust, Paul has also worked with locals to plant hundreds of trees, remove over a thousand bags of rubbish and hoist precisely 75 shopping trolleys from the Roding’s clay-thick riverbed.

We are thrilled to welcome Paul to Sunday Assembly today to share his journey as well some of his wisdom on the things that we can all do to be better stewards to the natural world. Paul is also co-founder of Lawyers for Nature, an advocacy group calling for the UK to grant rivers a legal right of protection.

We are also excited to have some spoken word from Esme Fay Finch, a poet, children’s author and forest school teacher, who’s project ‘Ways of the Wild’, inspires and educates children about environmental matters through storytelling, art workshops and dance.

There will also be four fantastic songs performed by our very own Sunday Assembly Band, so bring your best singing voices and dancing shoes! Doors open at 10.30am for an 11am start – please bring your re-usable cups to enjoy tea, coffee, and chats with members of our community.

Sunday Assembly is your regular and reliable stop for a welcoming, accessible and inspiring Sunday community, where you can hear talks, poetry, share your stories and make new friends. Please stay after for tea, biscuits, and engaging conversations with members of our community. Our assemblies are free to attend, but we kindly request that you support us so we can continue to keep it open to those who cannot afford to contribute.

In our post-capitalist society it is easy to wonder why so many of us are still struggling with a feeling of meaninglessness.

More than 2000 years ago Aristotle, Epicurus and the Stoics were pondering the same things and providing potential solutions to this dilemma.

John Graves is a teacher of Psychotherapeutic Studies, Life Coach, and life-long philosophy student sparked by the early teachings of his Greek mother.

Today he will introduce us to some of the wisdom from our Ancient Agony Uncles – showing us how relevant these ideas still are, hopefully saving us having to pay for self-help books!

We’re also thrilled to have spoken word poetry by Anna Herber – a poet, songwriter & speaker – who helped so many people find an inner sense of purpose.

Sunday Assembly is your regular and reliable stop for a welcoming, accessible and inspiring community. You can hear talks, poetry, share your stories and make new friends.

Please stay after for tea, biscuits a chat with members of our community. We are proud to be one of the ‘things to do in London’ on a Sunday morning!

Sniff sniff, dribble dribble, cough cough. As we creep ever more into the cold and darkness of winter, we may all be feeling more under the weather than usual, with an increase in ill health rising significantly over the winter months, when the body is less effective in fighting off infections.

Antibiotics have been a central part of our society’s approach to managing infectious diseases for nearly a century. But how were they discovered, and when and by whom? And does it really involve a 3,500 year old mouldy sandwich from Ancient Egypt?

Dr. Peter Altman is a biochemist, medical researcher and publisher and a veteran magician, having been a member of the Magic Circle since 1984. Today he will share some of his latest research from his third book, currently in production, Amazing Discoveries in Science.

We are also thrilled to have some poetry from former biochemist herself, Kay Scorah, who brings 70 years worth of experiment and creativity to her writing.

Sunday Assembly is your regular and reliable stop for a welcoming, accessible and inspiring Sunday community, where you can hear talks, poetry, share your stories and make new friends. Please stay after for tea, biscuits, and engaging conversations with members of our community.

The world of maths is one of the most abstract realms of human understanding. Whilst some of us find it logical, satisfying and beautiful, many of us struggle with the challenges of its concepts, find numbers difficult to comprehend, or may have been discouraged by traditional methods of teaching.

Today we are joined by artist, musician and numberphobe-turned-numberphile Brook Tate, who – as someone who severely struggled himself with mainstream methods of education – took it upon himself to design a new a unique method to help people of all ages learn, understand and quite possibly, fall in love with maths.

Multicolour Maths is a new method designed to help children and adults learn the foundations of mathematics using only colours and shapes, opening up the world of mathematics into endlessly beautiful patterns and helping students of all ages understand and appreciate the language of the universe.

Since first inventing the method in India in January 2024, Brook has presented it to the Head of Maths Education at Bristol University, the British Society of Research into Learning Mathematics, The British Library’s Inventors Club and the Alan Turing Institute. The BBC is also currently developing a short feature on the project.

Brook will also perform a song from his recent musical theatre piece.

According to the Slavery Footprint survey, the average family in the UK unknowingly employs 90 slaves, often hidden in plain sight. Dr Astrid Leuba has been working against modern slavery and human trafficking for many years. Formerly head of corporate responsibility at British Airways, she is now developing anti-slavery strategy and policy for Cancer Research UK and was recently nominated as Star of the Year for her work by Unseen, a UK charity running the UK Modern Slavery & Exploitation Helpline and providing safehouses for survivors of modern slavery and human trafficking. Today she will guide us through how we can learn to identify signs of potential modern slavery, knowing how to report them, and better understand this troubled system of which we are all a part.

We are also joined by spoken word artist, Amy Anam Cara, whose work reflects on the impacts of colonialism and imperialism on mental health and the ways in which the comfort of the global North demands the continued oppression of the global South.

“Wouldn’t we all love to do things just ‘because’, without the pressure to have a good reason?

Steve Chapman is an artist, writer, speaker, consultant and coach, who encourages people to do just that! Interested in creativity and the human condition, he works with individuals and organisations to find creative and counter-intuitive ways to help free themselves from ever-tightening loops of stuckness, shame and imperfection, nurturing, instead, the freedom of spontaneous self-expression, creativity and innovation.

We are also thrilled to have some poetry from Kay Scorah, a multi-skilled creative, who brings 70 years of experiment, risk, rage and learning to her writing.

Is age just a number?

You may have heard of the Baby Boomers, the Millennials and Gen Z. But have you heard of the Young Olds, the Mid Olds or the Old Olds? As human life expectancy has increased, there have been significant step changes in the way we perceive our life stages and their significance, and new research is proffering ever more nuanced categorisations of our experiences as a distinct ‘Generation’.

Vivien Louizos is a Counsellor and Life Coach for young people and adults, with a special interest in developmental psychology. Her research centres on the emergence of new categories in the life cycle, and the influence of our chronological age on the choices and decisions that we make.

As we continue to live later and longer, how do the determinants of our life experience change? To what extent are we influenced in our life choices by our age, and the unique circumstances of our stage of life? How real is the phenomenon of ‘My Generation’ – and is it biology, psychology, or the idiosyncrasies of the times in which we are born?

We are also thrilled to have a multi-generational poetry slot, with Joseph Gale Evans and Nadira Wallace each offering some spoken word across the generation ‘gap’.

I Scream, You Scream!! To mark the closing of our Summer season, this week we are paying homage to that oh so sweet, delectable and enduring symbol of Summertime to both young and old – the mighty Ice Cream cone!

Tom Boulton has worked as an ice cream scientist for Unilever & Little Moons for ten years. Today he will enlighten us with a talk on the history and culture of this most iconic sweet treat; the technology and processes in how it is made and what goes into concocting the best flavours. Yum yum!

We are also thrilled to welcome back Morwenna James, spoken word artist and published poet who uses radical honesty and self -deprecation to explore universal themes with a playful, humorous slant.

Ever been moved by Nietzsche’s philosophical musings, but been desperate to hear them sung in the style of Bob Dylan? Well, today is your lucky day, as we are joined by the inimitable Paul Lodge, musician and Professor of philosophy at Oxford University, who does just that!

Join us for a titillating blend of music, philosophy and literature as Paul offers his unique musical interpretations of the work of Nietzsche as well as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walter Benjamin, and Margaret Cavendish.

Paul’s songs have been featured on BBC Radio Oxford Introducing and BBC Radio Cumbria. In 2022 he launched his album Preludes to Wordsworth in the poet’s home, Rydal Mount, at the invitation of Wordsworth’s descendants.

We are also joined by comedian and poet, Sam Rix who will bring us a joyous medley of hilarious spoken word exploring creativity, social media and everything in between.

There will be four fantastic songs performed by our very own Sunday Assembly Band, so bring your best singing voices and dancing shoes! Please stay after for tea, biscuits, and engaging conversations with members of our community.