What’s On

11:00 am, April 20 2025

It’s Not Easy Being Green: Living Well in a Climate Crisis

The UN target of limiting global warming to 1.5°C looks likely to be broken soon. Despite great advances in renewables, fossil fuel use continues to increase, and the impact of climate change is being increasingly witnessed worldwide.

In a world that seems committed to business as usual, how do we continue to live well, overcome eco-anxiety and be optimistic for the future? How do we step outside any denial or numbness and better understand what meaningful action for us individually and as a society in the current period looks like?

With Earth Day coming up on 22 April, we are joined by Gale Burns: Greenpeace speaker and advisor, qualified psychotherapeutic counsellor and a founding member of the Climate Minds Coalition. He works with many organisations setting up listening structures so that new solutions can be found to challenging issues.

Using the latest updates and perspectives, we will do some work together and in small groups to tease out our best thoughts, plans and feelings, for a brighter, greener future.

We are also excited to hear poems from Caroline Davies, a founder member of Poets for the Planet whose most recent publication Elements of Water is a feminist retelling of Noah’s Ark.

There will also be four fantastic songs performed by our very own Sunday Assembly Band.

About Sunday Assembly London

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 – or arrive early for – tea, biscuits, and engaging conversations with members of our community.

→ Our next assembly: 4 May
← Our previous assembly: The Mindful Photo Lab, 6 April

Not-just-Sunday Activities

1:00 pm, April 20 2025

Lunch/picnic: because we have to eat and love to meet

Join us after the Assembly (Living Well in a Climate Crisis on 20 April) for lunch!

If the weather is good we’ll be outside, so bring blankets and food to share. Otherwise, we’ll head for a local restaurant, café or pub that serves food. (We’ll tell you which during the Assembly.)

Keep an eye on the weather and event listing in case we need to change venue. And if you have any portable games, bring them too. Newcomers are very welcome.

Not-just-Sunday Activities

3:30 pm, April 27 2025

Enrich Festival 2025: sing your heart out with our band!

Our Sunday Assembly London band can’t wait to play pop songs at Enrich Festival on Sunday 27th April, alongside a brilliant and inclusive line-up of talented performers.

‘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!’

Join our live band (which includes exceptionally talented neurodivergent musicians) as we get the whole theatre singing along to well-known pop songs. A typical Sunday Assembly has four songs; the Enrich audience will be getting ten songs!

Lyrics will be provided, dancing encouraged, and everyone is welcome.

Find out more at enrichfestival.org

(And yes, we know we’ve marked this as a non-just-Sunday event, but we don’t have a category for not-just-Sunday-Assembly-Sunday events!)

Not-just-Sunday Activities

7:30 pm, May 15 2025

Article Club: when you love to read, but it’s brevity you need

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 will be our 69th 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.

3. We talk about each one for around half an hour and 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.

Not-just-Sunday Activities Past events

7:30 pm, April 10 2025

Comedy Night: a good laugh, a great cause, zero bores!

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!

Main Events Past events

11:00 am, April 6 2025

The Mindful Photo Lab: love your camera, make some memories

The smartphone and social media age has made taking photos a part of our lives like never before. But is there a more fulfilling way to approach photography?

On Sunday 6 April, we heard from guest speaker Pierre Bureau, Founder of Mindful Photo Lab and the East London Photography Festival: an exciting initiative that blends mindfulness, creativity, and community engagement through photography.

Pierre told us how he was inspired to start a community that used photography to improve mental health, and the festival’s mission to celebrate East London’s rich cultural diversity and its focus on fostering wellbeing and connection through visual storytelling.

Our songs

Our Sunday Assembly band had us singing along to four photo-themed pop songs:

Picture of You – Boyzone
Photograph – Ed Sheeran
Wishing (If I had a Photograph of You) – A Flock of Seagulls
Paparazzi – Lady Gaga

Thanks to our host Alan, co-host Andrew, all our wonderful volunteers and everyone who filled the room with singing, laughter and appreciation – especially our first-timers!

→ Our next assembly: Earth Day Special, Living Well in a Climate Crisis, 20 April
← Our previous assembly: Use Your Voice: How to Unlock Your Courage and Amplify Your Message, 16 March

Not-just-Sunday Activities

5:00 pm, September 25 2025

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

Sunday Assembly’s annual global conference! Meet people from all over the world in Glasgow on 25th – 28th September.

From 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.

We’re delighted to be able to keep ticket prices similar to previous years, and a discounted Early Bird ticket will be available until 31st March 2025, at £110. We’ll also have day tickets, subsidised tickets and children’s tickets available.’

Find out more at sundayassemblyglasgowgathering.com

Not-just-Sunday Activities Past events

7:30 pm, April 3 2025

Article Club #68

The point of Article Club is to challenge ourselves to read a diverse range of articles, share them with like-minded people and deal with our anxiety that we aren’t reading books.

Here is a recap of how the club works:

1. We meet every six weeks or so in the National Theatre building in Central London. 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.

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 articles this time were…

The Fantasy of Addiction

There’s a Term for What Trump and Musk Are Doing

Main Events Past events

11:00 am, March 16 2025

Use Your Voice: How to Unlock Your Courage and Amplify Your Message

Sunday Assembly’s International Women’s Day 2025 Special was an inspirational, emotional hour. Read on to find out how…

Our guest speaker: Anna Herber

Previously a guest poet at Sunday Assembly, we were delighted to welcome back writer, poet and entrepreneur Anna Herber as our speaker.

[Photo credit: Anna Herber, LinkedIn]

Anna helps people move through resistance and fear so they can share powerful messages that question the status quo and grow their impact.

For this special IWD talk, Anna celebrated women who have used their voices to create change, as well as some of the most common ways that women are silenced, and how to overcome them.

Drawing from her own experience, she showed us how to liberate our outspoken inner activist, truth speaker and wisdom keeper – overcoming procrastination and perfectionism, unlocking our courage and amplifying our authentic voice.

Watch a clip from Anna’s previous Sunday Assembly visit on Instagram

Our guest poet: Kay Scorah

With Amy Anam Cara sadly unable to join us due to illness, community member Kay Scorah kindly stepped in.

We loved her Gender Stereowiped Nursery Rhymes, which included Jill giving Jack essential first aid and Mary profiting off organic wool sweaters!

Our songs

Our Sunday Assembly band had us singing along to four empowering songs from female artists:

Hold On – Wilson Phillips
Unwritten – Natasha Bedingfield
You Gotta Be – Des’Ree
Brave – Sara Bareilles

Notices

Topics of our notices included:

Our Book Swap table (where swapping is not compulsory)
Our first ever comedy fundraiser, bringing four fantastic comedians to you on 10th April – details here
Our next Sunday Assembly Article Club on Thursday 3 April – details here
Sunday Assembly’s annual conference, which this year is in Glasgow from 25th-28th September. Details about Sunday Assembly Glasgow Gathering here
An invitation from Ann to help steward the Mile End Parkrun on Sunday 18 May – details here
An invitation from Tanya to come to the Enrich Festival in Watford on the weekend of 26th-27th April. Enrich Festival is an inclusive arts festival showcasing the immense talent of disabled and neurodivergent artists and performers. The Sunday Assembly are performing on the Sunday.

A bonus guest poet

Inspired by Anna’s talk, community member Steph read out a poem by her friend, whose experiences in Afghanistan had moved him to urge his fellow men to support women.

As always, we followed the assembly with tea, biscuits and chat at the Backyard Comedy Club, then lunch, drinks & games at The Three Colts pub.

Thanks to our host Emily, co-host Matt, all our wonderful volunteers and everyone who filled the room with singing, laughter and appreciation – especially our first-timers!

Thanks also to everyone who wore purple in support of International Women’s day.

International Women’s Day 2024 at Sunday Assembly

As part of last year’s Sunday Assembly IWD Special, we wrote personal pledges to Inspire Inclusion, that year’s theme. Here’s a selection of our pledges. Click or tap to enlarge:

→ Our next assembly: The Mindful Photo Lab, 6 April
← Our previous assembly: Everyday Jews, 2 March

Main Events Past events

11:00 am, March 2 2025

Everyday Jews: cultural insights, comedy and a community story

To find out what we did at this Sunday Assembly, read on!

Our guest speaker: Keith Kahn-Harris

Following his hilarious 2022 Sunday Assembly talk on the multilingual warning messages inside Kinder Surprise Eggs(!), we welcomed back speaker and author Keith Kahn-Harris to discuss his new book, Everyday Jews: Why the Jewish People Are Not Who You Think They Are.

The book was inspired by Keith’s growing sense, as a Jew, that the Jewish people are now so public, so significant, so loved and so hated that the everyday stuff of Jewish life risks becoming ‘hollowed out’. In response, he aims to show that Jews can also be boring, mediocre and mundane, and that the ‘secular’ aspects of Jewish religious practice are often ignored but are the beating heart of Jewish religious life.

We learned how synagogues are as much about supper quizzes and social life as they are about communing with the divine, and the value in remembering that Jewish life can have its mundane and mediocre moments too.

Our guest performance: comedy from Rabbi Mendy Korer

We also welcomed jogger, chess player and stand-up comedian Rabbi Mendy Korer to this Assembly!

Founder of Chabad Islington, the only Jewish community centre in Islington, he loves to find ways to connect with people from diverse backgrounds, particularly through the human, spiritual and comedic relatability of Chassidic ultra-orthodox Jews.

Our songs

Our Sunday Assembly band performed three songs written and/or sung by Jewish artists:

The Life of Riley – The Lightning Seeds
Eternal Flame – The Bangles
Valerie – as sung by Amy Winehouse

This Much I Know

Today 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.

This time, David Goldstein explained why he started coming to Sunday Assembly 10 years after hearing about us… and shared some big news about a grant application he’s been involved with. Find out more here

Notices

Topics of our notices included:

Our Book Swap table (where swapping is not compulsory)
Our first ever comedy fundraiser, bringing four fantastic comedians to you on 10th April – details here
Sunday Assembly’s annual conference, which this year is in Glasgow from 25th-28th September. Details about Sunday Assembly Glasgow Gathering here

As always, we followed the assembly with tea, biscuits and chat (and a sip of Palwin Jewish wine from Keith) at the Backyard Comedy Club, Lunch Club (at Hulya’s Cafe) and drinks & games at The Three Colts pub.

Thanks to our host Hanna, co-host Shane, all our wonderful volunteers and everyone who filled the room with singing, laughter and appreciation – especially our first-timers!

→ Our next assembly: Use Your Voice: How to Unlock Your Courage and Amplify Your Message, 16 March
← Our previous assembly: Tell Me What You Want, What You Really, Really Want!, 16 February

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