Our assemblies in January-June 2019

11:00 am, June 16 2019

Conway Hall

Speaker: Lots

Poet: Lots

6th Birthday Celebrations

6th January 2019, 11:00am
Speakers: Tiu de Haan, Shamash Alidina

Our first assembly for 2019 AND our 6th ‘golden’ Birthday! What a date!

Join us in kicking 2019 off with a bombastic BANG and celebrate the past 6 years of Sunday Assembly with 6 of our favourite people from the past year on the 6th of Jan!

It’s a total treat and call us greedy, but, to celebrate this momentous date we will be having not one but TWO speakers, TWO poets and TWO Trying My Best speakers from yesteryear! Don’t say we don’t spoil you!

We are so excited to have Tiu de Haan back to talk to us about the importance of rituals and lead us in a Sunday Assembly ritual. Tiu is a ritual designer, creative facilitator, inspirational speaker, voiceover artist and musician. She creates experiences designed to connect us to our creativity, to each other, to ourselves and to the possibility of wonder.

Our second speaker is Shamash Alidina, co-founder of the Museum of Happiness, author of Mindfulness for Dummies and all round expert on Kindfulness! Shamash will be leading us on an extra special mediation to get our heads in the right space for the year ahead!

This Sunday Assembly will be hosted by our co-founder Sanderson Jones and we will have two of our favourite poets from 2018 performing.

We’ll also be doing our usual: Mass singalongs to some of our favourite power ballads, an awesome spoken word artist, hearing stories from a number of our community and drinking a vat of tea afterwards.

Trusting Your Superpower

20th January 2019, 11:00am
Speaker: CK Goldiing
Poet: Laurie Bolger

It’s time to take a little look inwards and onwards to 2019 and beyond!

So, let’s cut to the chase, what are your superpowers? And are you expressing them in your daily life?

For our next assembly we have CK Goldiing coming to teach us all to TRUST OURSELVES and how to live out our superpowers TO THE MAX!

Our speaker this week is writer, creator & presenter, CK’s uplifting stories have been championed by BBC, Huffington Post, Red Bull, Metro & Evening Standard. Fascinated by the psychology of everyday people, his projects are rooted in his spontaneous interactions with strangers – ordinary people he encounters in his everyday life.

In 2018, his debut short film, ’61 HUGS’ is CK’s most personal story yet, revealing what happened when he approached 61 total strangers in the street, and asked each for a hug.

A self-confessed overthinker, forever battling his own crippling self-talk, CK comes to Sunday Assembly London to share how he overcomes his intrusive inner dialogue and finds the will to create such bold, ambitious, inspiring stories.

This Sunday Assembly will be hosted by our co-founder Sanderson Jones and we will have the amazing Laurie Bolger doing some poetry for us.

Running For a Reason

3rd February 2019, 11:00am
Speaker: Ivo Gormley
Poet: John Wheeler

With January now over, maybe all of your very well intended health/ fitness/ wellbeing goals have taken a bit of a back seat, as the reality of 2019 sets in… Are you looking for a reason to get back on track? A ‘Reason To Run’, perhaps?

This week we have the Ivo Gormley from the GoodGym coming to help us get up, get out and get motivated! This assembly is all about Living Better and Helping Often! Pow Pow!

Goodgym is a growing movement of runners who run to help older people and community organisations. As well as starting that, Ivo has worked on increasing user participation for technology startups and public services in the UK and US. He directed the documentary film Us Now, an exploration of participatory culture which was broadcast around the world and his film The Runners has been watched by millions!

This Sunday Assembly will be hosted by our co-founder Sanderson Jones and we will have the wonderful John Wheeler doing some poetry for us.

Living With OCD

7th February 2019, 11:00am
Speaker: Dr David Adam
Poet: Christy Ku

Have you ever had a strange urge to jump from a tall building, or steer your car into oncoming traffic? You are not alone. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder comes in many shapes and forms and affects around 1.2% of the UK population.

This week we are very excited to have best selling author Dr David Adam coming to speak with us! David is the author of Sunday Star Times best seller ‘The Man Who Couldn’t Stop – The Truth About OCD’.

David will teach us about what it’s like to live with OCD and explore the weird thoughts that exist within every mind, and how they drive millions of us towards obsessions and compulsions. This assembly will be sure to challenge the way you think about what is normal, and what is mental illness.

This Sunday Assembly will be hosted by our co-founder Sanderson Jones( his last assembly hosting for a few months!) and we will have the wonderful Christy Ku doing some poetry for us.

There’s More To Reading Than Words

3rd March 2019, 11:00am
Speaker: Anj Cairns
Poet: Esi Yankey

I’m going to assume that (unless you have some futuristic dictating technology or someone is reading aloud), if you’re reading this right now, you can probably read.

Reading is part of our society, we read to learn, we read to stay connected, to keep updated with the world around us – to broaden our horizons. Reading empowers us. But imagine how shut off and disconnected from society you would feel if you couldn’t read?

This Sunday we are so excited to have Anj Cairns the CEO of Shannon Trust – an organisation which supports thousands of prisoners a year to transform their lives by unlocking the power of reading. They inspire and train prisoners who can read to teach prisoners who can’t.

We will also have the wonderful Esi from Poetry Prescribed reading some poems to us.

The Science of Living Longer

17th March 2019, 11:00am
Speaker: Richard Faragher
Poet: Elie Karslake

What causes ageing? How does it make us ill? Can we all extend our lives beyond 120 years in good health? What will it cost? If we could, would we want to? And if not, why not? The answers are both simple and more complex than you might think.

Our wonderful speaker this week is Richard Faragher – Professor of Biogerontology. Richard works on the relationship between cell and organismal ageing. He is past chair of the British Society for Research on Ageing, the International Association of Biomedical Gerontology and the American Aging Association. He has won the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Medal for his research into the accelerated ageing disease Werner’s syndrome. He is the first scientist to be honoured by Help the Aged for his championship of older people and holds the Lord Cohen of Birkenhead Medal for services to gerontology.

This assembly will be hosted by our co-founder Sanderson Jones. We will also have the amazing Elie Karslake from London Laughter doing poetry for us.

Why We Dream

7th April 2019, 11:00am
Speaker: Alice Robb
Poet: Daniel Piper

Following the success of our Sleep assembly late last year, we have decided to delve a little deeper into our night-time lives. For the next Sunday Assembly we are asking, Why Do We Dream? And what are dreams?

To answer these questions we are SO excited to have Alice Robb – who has come all the way from New York! Alice is a journalist and the author of Why We Dream: The Transformative Power of Our Nightly Journey, which has been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, NPR, The Guardian, Vogue and Elle, and will be translated into thirteen languages. She graduated from Oxford with a BA in Archaeology and Anthropology and lives in Brooklyn.

This assembly will be hosted by our co-founder Sanderson Jones. We will also the wonderful poet Daniel Piper doing spoken word for us.

Let’s Talk About Drugs

Thursday 11th April, 7:30pm
Speakers: Stephen Reid, Dr Will Lawn
Performer: Gemma Rogers

The third Edition of our ‘Lates’ series is coming to Conway Hall this April! And to keep in line with the more risqué subjects we are tackling in this series – It’s all about drugs!

This is an adult only evening gathering, which is ticketed to raise funds for Sunday Assembly London!

If you sometimes struggle to get up on a Sunday (or know someone who does) and would love to come to a Sunday Assembly where we can talk about things that aren’t suitable for children’s ears, this one is for YOU!

For this Edition of SUNDAY ASSEMBLY LATES we have Co-Founder of the UK Psychedelic Society, Stephen Reid. Stephen is a social entrepreneur, activist and public speaker. Previously, he served as a board member of Greenpeace UK, co-founded the New Economics Foundation’s New Economy Organisers Network and worked as a technology consultant for organisations including the Labour Party, the Green Party and 350.org. Stephen has Masters degrees in Physics from the University of Oxford and Complexity Sciences from the University of Bristol.

Our second speaker is Dr Will Lawn – Post-Doctoral Research Associate at University College London. Will we be talking about his research into the effects of cannabis on the teenage mind & brain and the risk of addiction to various drugs. He has also worked closely with the Global Drug Survey team, investigating the use of novel psychoactive substances.

As we as that we have the AMAZING Gemma Rogers coming to perform for us! What a treat!

Them as always, we’ll have our band welcoming you through the doors, some awesome power ballads and all the best Sunday Assembly joy (but at night!).

We will also have a donation based bar so you can enjoy a drink while you listen/ sing/ dance/ sit.

Come have fun while raising some pennies for this fantastic community!

Accepting Your Body

5th May 2019, 11:00am
Speaker: Becky Young
Other guests: Melanie Bloch

Are you too fat? Too thin? Too tall? Too short? How do you feel about your body? Your appearance? Do you Accept Your Body?

After a short break in April, we are back at Conway Hall on the 5th May and we are talking BODIES! We are SO excited to have Becky Young coming to speak with us. Becky is the founder and director of the Anti Diet Riot Club, who a stirring things up in the world of Body Positivity!

The 5th of May is also WORLD LAUGHTER DAY! So to celebrate that we will also be having Melanie Bloch and the Museum of Happiness along leading us in some laughs!

We’ll also be doing our usual: Mass singalongs to some of our favourite power ballads, hearing stories from a number of our community and drinking a vat of tea afterwards.

Out of Your Comfort Zone, But Within Your Own Boundaries

Sunday 19th May 2019, 11:00am
Speaker: Yaron Engler
Poet: Jah-Mir Early

We are often being told to ‘go outside of our comfort zone’ but sometimes that’s not so easy to do. It can feel overwhelming at times and out of touch from where we are at. This week we are so excited to have Yaron Engler from UpBeat coming to speak with us. Yaron is a professional drummer who has performed in front of over 500,000 people all around the world.

He is the founder of UpBeat Performance where he helps
organisations of all sizes to boost the levels of trust,
confidence and engagement of their people towards better
results and well-being.

At this assembly Yaron is going to create a space which will allow us to push ourselves, think differently, act differently and remove our defences – but all within the comfort of our personal boundaries.

We also have the Sunday Assembly favourite – Jah-Mir Early coming to perform some spoken word for us!

We’ll also be doing our usual: Mass singalongs to some of our favourite power ballads, hearing stories from a number of our community and drinking a vat of tea afterwards.

Embracing Your Weirdness

2nd June 2019, 11:00am
Speaker: Steve Chapman

The outsider’s time has come! In a society that is stuck in loops of common sense where we have an unhealthy attachment to expertise and logical, linear thinking, something counter-intuitive is needed. It is time for a creative revolution. One in which the outsider sits at the table alongside the experts. Where the passionately inexpert play a vital role in unsticking stuckness. All that you need to bring is your own unique and beautiful weirdness!

Our speaker for this assembly is the wonderful Steve Chapman! Steve is an artist, writer, philosopher and speaker who is interested in creativity and the human condition. He has spoken around the world on creativity, written a couple of books and exhibited his art alongside the likes of Pablo Picasso and David Shrigley. He spoke at Sunday Assembly London way back in 2014 and is very much looking forward to returning. He is at his best when he does not know what he is doing.

We’ll also be doing our usual: Mass singalongs to some of our favourite power ballads, hearing stories from a number of our community and drinking a vat of tea afterwards.

Digital Distractions

16th June 2019, 11:00am
Speaker: Dr Anastasia Dedyukhina
Performer: Lonan Jenkins

Do you check your email or social media just for a second, and then two hours later find yourself mindlessly clicking on yet another cat video? How about reading something online, and then immediately forgetting what it was about? You are not alone.

This coming Sunday we are so excited to have Dr Anastasia Dedyukhina speaking with us. Anastasia explores, how the internet is changing our brain. Quoting the latest neuroscience research, she explains how digital distractions are preventing us from good decision making and innovative and creative thinking, and will give practical tips on how to coach your brain to stay focused in the age of digital distractions.

Seeing as it’s Father’s Day we also have the wonderful Lonan Jenkins coming to do some father themed story telling for us! AND our very first Sunday Assembly father, Rich Kershaw, doing a Trying My Best!

Then we’ll also be doing our usual: Mass singalongs to some of our favourite power ballads, hearing stories from a number of our community and drinking a vat of tea afterwards.

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