News

Volunteer with Us

Board Trustees: enthusiastic, driven, organised

Sunday Assembly London’s Board plays an instrumental role in ensuring the charity is sustainable, taking the lead in decision-making and strategic direction of the organisation, as laid out in our governing document. 

What will you be doing?

Sunday Assembly is seeking volunteer Trustee Board members with drive and enthusiasm to assist in the delivery of its charitable aims. You will attend and contribute to our monthly Board meetings. 

You will be able to apply your individual strengths on the Board as well as learn new skills, defining a specialist role, projects and activities where you will take the lead and focus your time.

Main Responsibilities   

Our board members are responsible for overseeing the operations of the charity in accordance with their obligations as trustees. They are required to review Board papers and play a key role in decision-making. For all Board members, this includes:

  • Ensuring the effective running of the charity, ensuring it fulfils its purpose
  • Maintaining oversight and control over financial matters
  • Monitoring the delivery of community events and activities 
  • Ensuring the effective management of our volunteering community 
  • Strategic decision-making affecting the future development of the charity
  • Facilitating the charity’s decision-making process
  • Ensuring that Sunday Assembly complies with its Memorandum and Articles of Association
  • Maintaining the registers of directors and trustees of the charity as well as filing other necessary information with bodies such as the Charity Commission
  • Working with the Treasurer and other members of the Board to produce and submit an Annual report and accounts to bodies such as the Charity Commission

To achieve this, we request a minimum commitment of 8 hours a month. This includes attending meetings and assisting with the effective administration of charity business and, where possible, attending our events.

What are we looking for?

Essential

  • Organised and the ability to organise others
  • Enthusiasm to play an active role on the Board and in fulfilling Sunday Assembly’s purpose 
  • Ability to be a key point of contact for the Board
  • Strong communication skills
  • Desire to engage with issues affecting the community

Desirable / Nice to have

  • Knowledge of Charity law / Governance / Trustee obligations
  • Professional experience such as:
    • Agenda setting, minute taking and meeting organisation
    • Fundraising
    • Communications
    • Volunteer-led organisations
    • Project Management
    • Technology and Data
    • People and Culture
  • Experience of being a charitable trustee/in a position of responsibility.
  • Safeguarding experience. 

What’s in it for you?

Being a charitable trustee is a position of responsibility within an organisation and a great way to build managerial-level experience as well as to give something back.

Becoming a trustee is also a great opportunity to gain more knowledge about volunteering in the charity sector, and will make a great addition to your CV!

Many employers offer volunteer days, which you could use if deciding to take on a Trustee role with us. 

All trustees work with the Coordination Crew and stakeholders as appropriate. We ask that you come to your role with an open mind and shape the role to optimise the expertise you bring to the Board. 

Application process

  • STEP 1: Please send your CV (max 2 pages) and a covering letter to trustees@sundayassembly.com. We can arrange an initial discussion with a current Board member prior to application if requested.
  • STEP 2: You will be interviewed by some of our current Board Members.
  • STEP 3: You’ll be invited to our Board Meeting to meet fellow trustees, have a taste of the Board Meeting and ask questions.

To apply for this Trustee role or to ask any questions regarding this role, please contact any of our trustees – you may wish to read through the Charity Commission’s Trustee Guide too.

Thank you!

Volunteer with Us

Comms team volunteer: creative, proactive, strategic

Join our comms team to help create inspiring, thought-provoking and fun content, promoting our events and building the Sunday Assembly London community.

What will you be doing?

Between them, our comms volunteers are responsible for:

  • Capturing images and video at our assemblies and other events for use on promotional materials
  • Posting, updating and interacting via our website and social media channels (currently Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn)
  • Writing and distributing our regular newsletter and other email communications
  • Managing our mailing list
  • Writing and disseminating press releases
  • Keeping our database of press contacts up to date
  • Campaigns to help us reach out to identified target audiences (for example, students or those newly arrived in London) via social media, traditional media and in-person engagement
  • Identifying opportunities beyond our own channels (website, email marketing and social media) to market Sunday Assembly London 

Communications tasks are allocated amongst the team according to skills, experience, and capacity.  

How much time will it normally take?

We expect that, on average, this role will take around 4-8 hours per month.  Although it would be great if you could attend Sunday Assembly London on a regular basis to capture content, there is a lot of flexibility as to when you complete your volunteer tasks.

What support will be available?

Don’t worry, we won’t throw you in at the deep end! You’ll start with a structured induction, during which you’ll be familiarised with our branding and tone-of-voice guidelines.

You’ll work closely with the Co-Ordination Crew Lead, the Community Engagement Lead and your fellow comms volunteers (which includes both communications professionals and those with less experience), bouncing ideas off each other.  You’ll also have access to a WhatsApp group for support and regular informal check-ins with the Co-Ordination Crew Lead.

We’ll provide access to a Canva Pro account to enable you to produce high quality graphics.  You’ll also have the opportunity to develop your skills and network with communications industry professionals by attending training workshops run by the Media Trust.

What should I be able to do?

  • Create visual and written content that is engaging and inspiring, which shows attention to detail, and which fits our branding
  • Be confident in using a range of social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn
  • Have experience of creating graphics using Canva (or be willing to learn)
  • Have experience of using WordPress to maintain a website (or be willing to learn)
  • Have a strategic approach to communications
  • Show initiative in coming up with fresh ideas and implementing them
  • Enjoy working as part of a team with a variety of skills and abilities

Do I have to be a well-established member of the Sunday Assembly London community?

Our community is always open to newcomers and our volunteering is no exception. The team welcomes interest from anyone who’s friendly, open-minded and keen to learn.

What will I learn? 

You will be able to gain:

  • Experience of creating fun and engaging content across a variety of different platforms
  • Experience of running strategic marketing campaigns
  • Opportunities to gain leadership experience by leading on specific communications projects
  • Access to highly regarded industry training run by the Media Trust
  • An understanding of how small volunteer-led charities are run 
  • New friends within the Sunday Assembly London community

How do I apply for this role? 

Email Gwawr, our Co-Ordination Crew Lead, at gwawr@sundayassembly.com, or speak to Gwawr at one of our assemblies, and we’ll arrange a chat. 

To learn more and apply, please email Gwawr
News

Sunday Assembly London turns 13! A look back at our birthdays

In honour of our 13th birthday, join us for a look back at how we’ve marked some of our birthdays gone by.

We’ve included links to our event pages, photos and livestream recordings.

2013: Beginnings

Sunday 6th January 2013 was when it all started. Almost 200 people turned up at The Nave on St. Paul’s Road in Islington for a get-together that promised to ‘solace worries, provoke kindness and inject a bit more whizziness into the everyday.’

Our first speaker, children’s author Andy Stanton, told us how his first book took almost a decade of dropping out and dead end jobs to write.

As you can see from the artwork, we called ourselves The Sunday Assembly back then. Little did our co-founders Pippa Evans and Sanderson Jones realise how that ‘The’ would be overtaken, with hundreds of assemblies to follow and dozens of Sunday Assembly communities in the UK & internationally!

2014: One year and counting
Our guest speaker was Alom Shaha: science teacher, writer and film-maker.

2016: There was a cake…
Shown here with our co-founders Pippa and Sanderson.

2018: There were many cakes!
There’s a photo of them at the top of the page.

Our 5th birthday speaker was Rufus Hound. Tying in with our theme of Light in the Darkness, Rufus spoke about the role of hope in our lives, how faith can provide it and how those without faith can still can embrace it.

2020: Change of Heart
Conservationist Margot Raggett helped us explore how we can make changes for the better, both in our personal lives and in the world around us. Comedic singer/songwriter Gecko returned to entertain us.

2021: Improv your Year
Our 8th birthday speaker was none other than Sunday Assembly London co-founder Pippa Evans. Pippa explained how life is one big improvisation and all of our interactions with the world are made of quick decisions based on what’s available to us.

We couldn’t celebrate this birthday in person, but the good news is that because we were using Zoom and YouTube, we recorded it! Watch the recording here

2022: It’s My Party and I’ll Dry if I Want To
A hybrid assembly. Our guest speaker was Laura Willoughby, co-founder of Club Soda. Laura taught us all about ‘mindful drinking’, and how we can empower ourselves to make conscious decisions about our alcohol consumption. Gecko performed for us again too.

Those of us who gathered in Conway Hall had a birthday lunch in Nando’s afterwards.

2023: Into double figures!

2024: Send in the Clowns
Embracing the playfulness that none of us should lose as we age, our guests were clown Afa Simpson and poet Paul Matthews.

2026: 13 and we feel lucky!
Fast-forward to our first teenage birthday and we kept up our recipe for success with a speaker from our community (Hanna Finn on everyday creativity), plenty of singing and generous helpings of tea and homemade cake, followed by a local lunch and a trip to the pub.

Thank you to everyone who’s celebrated our birthdays with us and the many assemblies in between. You’ve helped to build an in-person community and that’s no small thing. Here’s to another year of Living Better, Helping Often and Wondering More.

We meet at the Backyard Comedy Club in Bethnal Green at 11am on the first & third Sundays of the month (most months). You can arrive any time from 10:30am with no need to book and no pressure to pay (though donations are very welcome).

If you’re looking for learning, laughter and a little less loneliness in London, we can’t wait to welcome you in 2026. We were all Sunday Assembly London first-timers once, and we know how daunting it can be – but once you’ve taken that step through our doors, the rest is a piece of cake!

Volunteer with Us

Front of House Lead: welcoming, friendly, supportive

Are you a cheerful people person, and a natural community-builder? We’re looking for a Front of House Lead to support our team of volunteers as they welcome attendees to Sunday Assembly London.

Front of House Lead is the ideal role for a gregarious person who wants to give their time to a community and build their experience of events organisation, fundraising, and community management. It is a great way to get involved in Sunday Assembly London behind the scenes. It’s all about making sure everyone feels safe and welcome!  

What will you be doing?

Assemblies take place twice a month, on Sundays, and front of house volunteers do a range of different things to make sure everything runs smoothly on the day. We ask front of house volunteers to arrive at 10am, and the event finishes at 1pm.

You’ll also join regular meetings with the Coordination Crew to plan upcoming Assemblies, and contact the volunteers to ensure everyone is prepared for each event. It is roughly 8 hours of volunteering a month.

What difference will you make?

It’s vital that new attendees and regulars alike feel looked after at our events, so that we can keep building a community worth being a part of!

You’ll be able to develop and support a team of volunteers, and help to make decisions about how the Assembly is run.

To learn more and apply, please email Gwawr

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.

News

This Much I Know: David Goldstein

At Sunday Assembly on 2 March (Everyday Jews), we reintroduced This Much I Know: a segment where we hear from a member of the Sunday Assembly community on a topic close to their heart.

David Goldstein explained why he started coming to Sunday Assembly and shared some good news involving a grant application.

Here’s an abridged version of David’s speech.

“I heard about Sunday Assembly in 2013, its first year. I immediately liked the idea. Then I started coming along… 10 years later. 

So what spurred me into coming?

2023 was the year I really started thinking that I needed something more in the structure of my life, other than family and work. There was a musical that came out that year called Subspace Rhapsody, and I was particularly struck by the song How Would That Feel, which includes the line, “It might be time to change my paradigm.” 

And then came the events of the 7th of October, which left a lot of us feeling vulnerable in a way we hadn’t before. 

Sunday Assembly popped back into my mind, and I thought, “Here’s a community where I can hear voices other than my own – singing voice included – and I’ve got more to gain by walking through those doors than I have to lose.” 

The fact that I’ve kept coming to Sunday Assembly is a testament to how welcoming everyone’s been, and I reached the point where I wanted to give something back, so I’ve done two things. 

One was to offer some ideas about Sunday Assembly’s marketing, and I’ve ended up joining the crew of marketing volunteers. 

As for the other thing… Marketing’s also my day job. I’m the copywriter at an accountancy firm called BKL, which has a charitable foundation called The BKL Foundation, which allocates a percentage of BKL’s profits to good causes. The trustees are BKL employees but it operates independently of BKL. I decided to request a grant for Sunday Assembly. So I wrote an email to the Foundation explaining why Sunday Assembly was a worthy cause that fitted their criteria.  

And at their February meeting, The BKL Foundation trustees decided to award Sunday Assembly a grant… of £,5000! 

Thank you to The BKL Foundation, and to all of you as Sunday Assemblers for being part of something that’s worth every penny of that grant.

The thing to do now is to keep going. Make sure that if BKL check back in six months, a year, to see how it’s going, we can show them how we’ve built on that grant. You’re all part of Sunday Assembly’s marketing. So please, forward the Sunday Assembly newsletters, share the social media posts, do your own posts tagging Sunday Assembly, and keep telling people about us. Just tell them not to wait 10 years before they give it a try. 

I thought about signing off today with ‘Kind regards’, but no one has ever said “Kind regards” in an actual conversation, except for the King. It’s documented: 9th of March 2021. So Instead I’ll end with the sign-off that the future Queen Mother used in 1941: 

‘Tinkety-tonk, old fruit, and down with the Nazis.’”

From the Sunday Assembly trustees…

Sunday Assembly London wishes to sincerely thank The BKL Foundation for its very generous grant of £5,000. This vital financial support will help Sunday Assembly London to continue offering community engagement, and connection through our inclusive, secular gatherings.

With this funding we can expand our programmes, enhance our events, and reach even more people with our core values: Live Better, Help Often and Wonder More.

Here’s David’s photo of Karen, our treasurer, meeting The BKL Foundation chair and some of their trustees at BKL’s North London office.

Left-right: Tyler, Karen, Roze, Ellie, Ian

Volunteer with Us

Stage Tech: reliable, keen, skilled

About the role

As part of the tech team, you will liaise with the Music Lead and other team members to make sure each event is as spectacular as possible! Volunteers are responsible for running the sound and stage tech at Sunday Assembly events, via a sound mixing desk and lighting controller provided on site at Backyard Comedy Club. We usually have a speaker and a live band, and sometimes other forms of performance . 

For this role, volunteers:

  1. Set up equipment and run sound checks before the event.
  2. Keep an eye on everything and troubleshoot during as needed.
  3. Ensure equipment is safely packed up and stored afterwards.

This is a great chance to gain more familiarity with live stage tech, work closely with brilliant musicians, and be involved in Sunday Assembly London behind the scenes.

What you will be doing?

  • Getting to know the specific set up of Backyard Comedy Club and our event set up.
  • When on the rota to volunteer, attending the Assembly to set up, run, and pack away the sound and lighting equipment.
  • Helping to ensure that all the equipment our band, singers and technicians need is stored safely and kept in working order.
  • Reporting to the Music Lead to update them on any broken or missing equipment
  • Telling them any other brilliant thoughts you have to make our events better!

What support is available?

This role is supported by the Music Lead, who will ensure you receive training and support as needed. You will be introduced to the set up of Backyard Comedy Club’s mixing desk and lighting by the team lead and current members of the team. There are written set up guides, as our time in the venue itself is limited to our booked Assembly slots. More hands-on training can also be arranged. All equipment is provided, though you may wish to bring your own laptop or tablet. Band members and other volunteers will also be there and happy to help you out on the day!

If you would like to make suggestions or raise concerns, please also talk to the Music Lead. We also have a lovely Volunteer Handbook – please take a look! 

How much time will it normally take?

To get started we’ll arrange an ‘onboarding’ meeting to talk through the role and set up, which can be remote or in person. The commitment is roughly 3½ hours for each Assembly you volunteer at: arrive at Backyard Comedy Club with the band to begin set up at roughly 9.30am, and help to pack down equipment in order to leave the hall by 1pm at the latest. If you’d like additional training or support, we can plan that too!

What should I be able to do?

Ideally, you already have at least basic experience of sound mixing and lighting at live events, and how to operate and store the equipment.

We are happy to support you if you’re keen to learn!

What will I learn?

You will gain experience of running the sound and lighting at a regular, live music and speaking event, with a variety of different instruments, plus get to know a lovely group of other volunteers. 

How do I apply for this role? 

Send an email to our Music Lead, Rob, at music@sundayassembly.com, to arrange an informal chat!

Stay up to date

Don't be a stranger! We'd love to stay in touch, but we'll only do this with your permission. Sign up here to subscribe to our newsletter!