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11:00 am, November 3 2024

MULTICOLOUR MATHS! With Sunday Assembly Winter Market

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.

Not-just-Sunday Activities

12:00 pm, November 3 2024

Winter Market

Calling all makers, creators, artists, and artisans among us. We are a creative community, so let’s show off! Please come and display (and sell if you want) your creations at our Winter market, after the Assembly on Sunday 3 November. To book a stand and ask for further information, please contact Astrid.

If you aren’t planning to run a stall, you have the opportunity to admire our community members’ unique and fantastic creations and get a head start on your holiday season shopping! Come and have a look and talk with the makers from 12 pm on Sunday 3 November. Be ready to be amazed, intrigued, and dazzled!

Not-just-Sunday Activities

7:30 pm, November 28 2024

Article Club #65

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 or near the National Theatre.
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.

Nearer the time Alistair (host) will create a Google form that you can use to vote for the articles you would like to read and discuss at this event.

Not-just-Sunday Activities

1:00 pm, October 20 2024

Picnic/Lunch and/or Boardgames

Join us after the Assembly for lunch and board games! Keep an eye on the weather and event listing in case we need to change venue. Bring a picnic mat and food from home or the nearby shops. And if you have any portable games, bring them too. Newcomers are very welcome. We generally play short, easy to learn, fun games.

Not-just-Sunday ActivitiesPast events

7:30 pm, October 17 2024

Article Club #64

Here is a recap of how the Club works:
1. We meet every six weeks or so in or near the National Theatre.
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.

The first article for this meet up is: I’ve got news for those who say Brexit is a disaster: it isn’t. That’s why rejoining is just a pipe dream | Larry Elliott | The Guardian

And the second one is: The UK’s forgotten ‘fifth nation’ – BBC Travel

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. Article Club was set up by Ross Bailey in 2015 who did a fantastic job at running it. Ross was followed by the equally fantastic Claire Ferraro and I (Alistair Baker) have been in the chair for the past six years.

Main EventsPast events

11:00 am, October 20 2024

Hidden in Plain Sight

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.

Not-just-Sunday Activities

7:00 pm, December 13 2024

Yule Rock 2024

Hark! Come all ye mirthful to Sunday Assembly London’s annual seasonal singalong, Yule Rock!

Whilst we have been settling nicely into our new home at the Backyard Comedy Club in Bethnal Green, for one night only we return to the famous Conway Hall for the most festive night of the year!

We’ll be singing along to all your favourite Christmas classics once again, from Wham to Wizzard, with our inimitable live band. We’ll also be hosting a silent auction and raffle, with a delectable array of prizes on offer to get you even more in the festive mood. We will have a cashless bar serving alcoholic and alcohol-free beverages as well as the requisite mince pies.

We are absolutely thrilled to have as our host this year comedienne, songwriter, science presenter and ‘Voice of an Angle’ Helen Arney. Helen features regularly on TV, radio and in theatres across the world with her unique mix of stand-up, songs and science, with credits including QI, Blue Peter and the science comedy phenomenon Festival of the Spoken Nerd.

Come dressed in your Yuletide best! Sparkles, baubles, tinsel and of course, questionable Christmas jumpers are actively encouraged! This all-ages party will be full of joy for family and friends. Doors open at 7pm for drinks, with the singing and dancing kicking off at 7:30pm.

Yule Rock is brought to you by Sunday Assembly London, a secular community that celebrates life under the motto of “Live Better, Help Often, Wonder More”. It is a heart-warming and inclusive gathering, embodying the essence of Sunday Assembly’s core values of community, joy, and wonder. It is the perfect occasion for individuals of all backgrounds to come together, sing their hearts out, and revel in the holiday cheer without any religious affiliations.

Main EventsPast events

11:00 am, October 6 2024

A Pointless Talk about a Ridiculous Project

“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.

Main EventsPast events

11:00 am, September 15 2024

Talkin’ ‘Bout My Generation

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’.

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