Our assemblies in July-December 2015

11:00 am, December 20 2015

Conway Hall

Speaker: Lots

Poet: Lots

The Best Animal Ever

Come hear great talks, sing great songs and celebrate this one life we know we have!

This week’s speaker is Russell Arnott (the science guy), who’ll be speaking about ‘The Best Animal Ever’ (!). There’ll be poetry from Lisa Kelly and our house band is going to play some awesome music for you to sing along to!

Community in London’s East End

This Sunday you’re really in for a treat: we welcome Sunday Assembly’s own Harriet Salisbury, author of the book The War on our Doorstep: London’s East End and how the Blitz Changed it Forever. She’ll be talking about the ‘real’ East Enders and community:

“I’m going to take you back to a time when community defined where you walked and where you worked, what you did and whether or not you survived – a time when community was more than a mission statement or manifesto pledge, it was a matter of life or death. Welcome to one of the most demonised and exalted communities of all time – London’s East End.”

We’ll also be joined by music hall time travellers Underbling & Vow for an actual knees-up and the lovely Tim Wells will read us some of his poetry!

As always, we’ll get to sing some fantastic songs (this time by the likes of Blur, Pulp and Madness) and our super talented house band will be there to accompany us.

Recipes for Wonder

This Sunday is going to be awesome: our speaker will be Alom Shaha, author of The Young Atheist’s Handbook. science teacher, writer and film maker. He’ll be exploring how looking closely at the world, through the prism of science, enhances our appreciation of it.

Look forward to poetry by Dom Bury and singing songs by the likes of Tina Turner and Starship. As always, there will be tea & biscuits afterwards.

Happiness

Come hear great talks, sing great songs and celebrate this one life we know we have!

This Sunday, Anna Hughes, cycling instructor, author and round-Britain cyclist, will be telling us about her 4000-mile, 10-week bike journey around Britain – a life-changing experience.

We will be hearing from Jeff (all the way from Sunday Assembly Los Angeles) in our “This Much I Know” slot. Our fantastic house band are back and will play some fantastic tunes.

We’re also holding a BAKE SALE in aid of the Nepal Appeal. So please bring some cake if you’re any good at baking and buy some if you’re better at eating.

Improve with Improv

Come hear great talks, sing great songs and celebrate this one life we know we have!

This Sunday, our very own Pippa Evans will explain how the principles of improvisation can be applied to live a full life. Just back from Edinburgh Festival, doing A LOT of improv, she clearly knows what she’s talking about!

There will also be poetry from Danny Scott.

Sing along to some awesome pop songs, listen to poetry, drink tea with lovely people and just have a nice time!

Communication and the Pen

  • 20th September 2015, 11:00am
  • Speaker: Sharon Little
  • Poet: Maitreyabandhu

We have the wonderful poet Maitreyabandhu coming to share his words with us and our very own Sharon Little talking about Thinking Of You Week – an initiative by the Greeting Card Association to encourage people to write to those who we haven’t been in touch with or people who might be isolated.

Work

Come hear great talks, sing along to some awesome pop songs, listen to poetry and celebrate this one life we know we have!

This week, our speaker is Katie Duckworth of ‘Be The Change’ and there’ll be poetry from Stuart McKenzie.

Justice

Our theme for this Assembly is Justice and the headline speaker is Sarah Coope from the International Justice Mission. As the UK marks Anti-Slavery Day UK, Sarah will be exploring the challenge of confronting issues of injustice that impact the lives of the poor, including modern day slavery. She’ll discuss the hope for a better future that is emerging through collaboration, partnership and a movement of people.

We will have a poet to entertain or console us and the lovely Hannah Mottram will be ‘Doing Her Best’.

Nicking Ideas from Nature

  • 1st November 2015, 11:00am
  • Speaker: Yaniv Peer
  • Poet: Christine Webb

Yaniv Peer will talk about Biomimicry and The Moebius Project

There’ll be poetry from Christine Webb, Ruth Moir will be ‘trying her best’ and as usual, the band will be playing some fantastic songs for you.

How to Wire the Brain for Joy

  • 15th November 2015, 11:00am
  • Speaker: Gianna de Salvo
  • Poet: Julia Bird

Happiness may be fleeting, but the brain can be rewired for lasting joy. Recent studies have found that by doing many of the things you are doing already – being kind to others, making and maintaining friendships and giving without asking for anything back – your brain begins to create new neural pathways around positivity and you, in turn, begin creating more joy in your life. This talk will discuss why this is the case and will introduce a simple exercise that you can do to help this process along.

We also have poetry from the awesome Julia Bird. On top of this you can join us at the end for tea and cake!

Secular Spirituality in the Age of Reason

Andy Gibson thinks secular people should be able to have a spiritual life too. After launching Mindapples to help everyone take care of their minds like they take care of their bodies – he is now on a quest to help people develop their spiritual side in a non-religious way. He’ll be asking what it might mean to be spiritual without the supernatural and exploring how we can put the soul back into secularism.

Following this Assembly, we’re having another bake sale, this time in aid of Crisis at Christmas. If you like baking – bring a cake. If you like eating cake – buy and eat some cake on the day! Santa and all things yule are optional but welcome. As always, please no fresh cream or raw uncooked eggs in the icing or filling and let us know if anything contains nuts. Happy Baking (and eating)!

Family!

Before the festive break and the possibility of spending a lot of time with family members, we thought it would be good to hear from our speaker, Maria Peters. She likes people and laughing and runs personal communication workshops for people in the working world, covering topics such as conflict management, personal impact and influencing. She also teaches and performs improvised comedy.

As well as this awesome talk, we will be celebrating the Yuletide with some belters of festive songs and enjoying some much deserved tea and cake afterwards.

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