Not just Sunday Assemblies

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!

Our Sunday Assembly London band had great fun playing pop songs at Enrich Festival on Sunday 27th April, alongside a brilliant and inclusive line-up of talented performers.

How the festival describes itself:

‘Enrich Festival is an inclusive Arts festival showcasing the immense talent of disabled and neurodivergent artists and performers in the UK. It is produced by Herts Inclusive Theatre, an award winning charity that aims to break down barriers about disability through the Performing Arts.

Enrich Festival is delighted to return to Watford Palace Theatre on 26th & 27th April 2025. Join us as we showcase the immense talent of neurodiverse and disabled people in the Arts through drama, dance, film, art, comedy, music and poetry; complemented by inclusive and fully accessible arts-based workshops for all ages and abilities, there’s something for everyone across this weekend extravaganza!’

Our live band (which includes exceptionally talented neurodivergent musicians) made it their mission to get the whole theatre singing along to well-known pop songs. In true Sunday Assembly style, the lyrics were on a big screen so everyone could sing along if they wanted to.

A typical Sunday Assembly has four songs; the Enrich audience got ten songs! They included:

• A Little Respect – Erasure
• Let It Go from Frozen
• Flowers – Miley Cyrus
• What Makes You Beautiful – One Direction
• It’s My Life – Bon Jovi
• Grace Kelly – Mika
• This Is Me from The Greatest Showman
• Mamma Mia – ABBA

Well done to our band, thanks to everyone who came along and congratulations to Sunday Assembly London’s Tanya Byrne for making such an amazing festival happen!

Find out more at enrichfestival.org

Thanks to everyone who came to our comedy fundraiser with Quantum Leopard!

Ever since Sunday Assembly was founded – by two comedians – our three tenets have included Live Better and Wonder More. (We’ll get to the other tenet later.) Comedy nights are great for both: the uplift of shared laughter and the marvel of well-crafted comedy.

And what’s better than two comedians?

Four comedians! They entertained us on 10th April.

Our host was James Ross, whose Quantum Leopard comedy nights have won awards for showcasing stand-up that doesn’t punch down. He put together a fabulous line-up for us:

• Mark Thomas: Mark’s been performing comedy on stage and screen for over 35 years. He mixes theatre, journalism and the odd bout of performance art
• Ben Pope: From Cambridge Footlights to Edinburgh Fringe to London clubs, Ben’s been called ‘one of the best storytellers in comedy’
• Jamie Mykaela: A comedy-cabaret artist who’s been described as ‘bawdy, brassy, vulnerable and intense’, with performances fuelled by 12 years of opera training
• Alex Franklin: Acclaimed in 2024 for being ‘winningly weird’, Alex’s performances have blended musical comedy, science and the joy of being trans

The details for this not-on-a-Sunday spectacular were:

Thursday 10th April from 7:30pm to 10pm (doors open at 7:30pm; show starts at 8pm)
COLAB Theatre, 22 Southwark Bridge Road, London SE1 9HB

What happened to the ticket fees? None of it went to our host, thanks to his amazing generosity; the performers didn’t want a cut either. Every penny went to Sunday Assembly London, at a time when we really need it to ensure we have a future.

So while the audience were laughing to keep our lights on, they were upholding our other tenet: Help Often. And we’re so grateful to them.

What did you think of the comedy night? Let us know on our social media!

• 7:00 pm, May 15 2013
• Camden Head, Camden Passage, Angel

We are living in times that call for us to hang on to reason.  With rising unemployment at one end and people facing extreme work pressures at the other; in the middle there is a strong need for the understanding of the meaning of life. Age of Reason plan to explore the words of great thinkers and ordinary philosophers alike.

Camden Head, Camden Passage, Angel (nearest tube Angel)
2 Camden Walk, London Borough of Islington, N1 8D
15 May 7:00–7-9.00

7:00 Welcome and introduction
7:15 Sunday Assembly context  – Sanderson
7:30 Guest Speaker:
8:00 Group discussion
9:00 Close
Admission Free

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• 7:00 pm, September 18 2013
• Camden Head

A message from Philosophy Club:

Hope everyone enjoyed the summer break. In the first session for the Autumn series we may well explore what led us to a global financial crises or individual greed and collective poverty.  This month’s guest speaker  Andy Denis will discuss his philosophy on ‘individual behaviour and collective outcomes’.

When: Wednesday the 18th September @ 7pm.

Where: Camden Head – in Angel (2 Camden Walk, N18DY)

Andy Denis Biog:

Dr Denis worked for the Economist Intelligence Unit in the 1980s and joined City University Business School in 1990 as a researcher in financial development, moving to the Economics Department in 1991.He gained his PhD in 2002 with a thesis on “Collective and Individual Rationality”. His research interests are in the history and philosophy of economics, and he has published on Adam Smith, Keynes, Hayek, Malthus, the methodology of the Austrian School of Economics and the concept of equilibrium in neoclassical economics.In 2009 he guest edited a special issue of the International Review of Economics Education on pluralism in the teaching of economics.Dr Denis has recently been elected a member of the ESHET (European Society of the History of Economic Thought) Council.

This month’s session was coordinated by Albert Van Hoek and the philosophy club team of organisers.

Best,

Dionne

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• 7:00 pm, October 16 2013
• The Blacksmith and the Toffeemaker, Islington

Hello! How are you feeling? Or more to the point, why are you feeling? Where do your emotions come from? And what on earth are they for?!

We’ll be getting to grips with these sorts of questions at this month’s Age of Reason philosophy club, and we’d love it if you came too! The rather excellently-named Richard Firth-Godbehere is our speaker and will be with us as we explore the idea of emotions from a philosophical standpoint, through history to the present day.

Please note WE HAVE MOVED! Join us for a pint of ale and a pork pie (food for thought) at The Blacksmith and the Toffeemaker in Islington. However you’re feeling, stick this date in your diary!