Our assemblies in July-December 2016

11:00 am, December 18 2016

Conway Hall

Speaker: Lots

Poet: Lots

Taking a Leap

  • 3rd July 2016, 11am
  • Speaker: Chairman Kato (later known as Kato Wong)

Hackney resident Chairman Kato is known as an artist and musician, but for many years he also had a double life working as a doctor in Accident and Emergency. It was an arrangement that worked well for much of that time but Kato became increasingly conflicted about his future and felt trapped in between two worlds. He knew he wanted to become a full time artist but couldn’t see how he could make it happen.

Then one day, at the start of 2014, Kato woke up one morning and abruptly ended his medical career, shocking his colleagues by announcing that he was now working as an artist. He had unwittingly made the biggest decision of his life.

Since then he has steadfastly dedicated himself to spreading the message about creativity. He passionately believes that not only are we all artists, but that it is our universal birthright to express ourselves. Since becoming a full time artist Kato has coached many people through their creative blocks, helping them tap their artistic potential. He also runs a weekly support group called The 100% Club, providing a confidential and encouraging environment for anyone looking to recover their creativity.

At his Sunday Assembly address, Kato will be talking about creativity, and what the joy of self expression teaches us about personal freedom and authentic living.

As well as this inspiring talk, we will hear real life stories from the community, sing some awesome songs, drink a vat of tea/cofee and eat a heck of a lot of biscuits afterwards too.

BSL interpretation will be provided.

We can’t wait to see you there and have fun celebrating life with you all!

Sunday Assembly London is free to attend and runs entirely on donations. Please support us if you can to keep it free for those who can’t.

Sharing

Come and join us and chief sharer, Benita Matofska on an extraordinary journey into the Sharing Economy (a system built around the sharing of human and physical resources — think cars, goods, skills…).

Benita is a global award-winning social entrepreneur, innovator and public speaker. She is a worldwide expert, speaker, writer and consultant on the Sharing Economy and the Founder of The People Who Share – a social enterprise that helps people and companies discover the Sharing Economy and the pioneer behind Global Sharing Week.

Discover how and why this new economy is changing the world as we know it. From individuals, to communities to multi-national corporations, she is witnessing a sharing transformation that is shaking society to its core. Do you dare to share? If you do, then read on about our Share Table that will happen during teas and coffees!

As well as this inspiring talk, we will hear real life stories from the community, sing some awesome songs, drink a vat of tea/cofee and eat a heck of a lot of biscuits afterwards too.

BSL interpretation will be provided by volunteer Lauren Harris.

We can’t wait to see you there and have fun celebrating life with you all! Sunday Assembly London is free to attend and runs entirely on donations. Please support us if you can to keep it free for those who can’t.

Share Table
Bring an item in good condition that you no longer need and share it with our Share Table, where you’ll find all sorts of treasures that you do need! With over £3.5 trillion worth of unused goods in the world, the Share Tables show that sharing not only helps to save the planet but it’s fun too! You can bring any items such as: a book, DVD, accessory, item of clothing, household goods – anything you like as long as it’s in good condition and can easily be carried!

Mental Boundaries

We are feeling beyond lucky to announce that Kasper van der Meulen, a Dutch author and lifestyle adventurer is coming from Holland to speak at Sunday Assembly. He wowed us at the Sunday Assembly Conference Called Wonder in Utrecht this year and has agreed to come to London to speak to us about how a young deaf girl taught him how to teach music.

He takes a no-nonsense, skill based approach to personal development through all kinds of exciting adventures and creative experiments. Always on the hunt for new ways to optimize mental fitness and to cultivate focused awareness, and for innovative ways to teach these principles in a fun and bitesized manner. At the Sunday Assembly he will be speaking about boundaries – especially the mental boundaries that we put on ourselves – and asking: what keeps us from limitless self-expression?

As well as this inspiring talk, we will hear real life stories from the community, sing some awesome songs, drink a vat of tea/cofee and eat a heck of a lot of biscuits afterwards too.

BSL interpretation will be provided.

We can’t wait to see you there and have fun celebrating life with you all!

Sunday Assembly London is free to attend and runs entirely on donations. Please support us if you can to keep it free for those who can’t. 

The Power Hour

We’re not just thinking power ballads here guys, this week we are joined by the incredible Indra Adnan who is going to talk to us about Soft Power and how we can use it in our lives.

For over twenty years, Indra has been writing and consulting in the international arena of soft power, conflict transformation and integral leadership. She is the founder/Director of the Soft Power Network, the founder/Director of The Downing Street Project for balanced leadership and a freelance project director for Compass think tank. She’s worked with the World Economic Forum, Indian government, the British Council, the Scottish Executive and the ICA. As well as all of this, she writes regularly for The Guardian and The Huffington Post!

On top of Indra’s inspiring talk, we have Joshua Idehen from Benin City doing spoken word, we’ll hear real life stories from the community, sing some awesome songs, drink a vat of tea/coffee and eat a heck of a lot of biscuits afterwards too.

BSL interpretation will be provided.

We can’t wait to see you there and have fun celebrating life with you all!

Sunday Assembly London is free to attend and runs entirely on donations. Please support us if you can to keep it free for those who can’t. 

The Happiness of Being You

Oh my goodness, we cannot contain our excitement about this one! We have the very excellent Danny Bent coming to speak at Sunday Assembly this week!

Danny was voted one of the 100 happiest people in the UK, and one of the 50 most inspirational people in London. He is an award winning author and journalist, Guinness World Record holder, and celebrated adventurer and community leader.

Motivating people to be the best version of themselves is Danny’s passion and trade. Encouraging them to do more, give more and live more. Living dreams, facing fears, and loving themselves, others and life with abandon are his tool kit.

Come and find out what it’s like to wake with maggots in your hair and beard, to be held at gunpoint, to fall head first off a cliff and still be one of the happiest people in the country.

AND…We’re going to have a Sunday Assembly Project Awesome afterwards so come in you most 80s neon workout gear ready for some energetic fun! Have a look here for more info: https://www.facebook.com/events/148638378907799/

On top of Danny’s talk, we have Becks and Caz pulling some moves with some Swing Dancing, we’ll hear real life stories from the community, sing some awesome songs, drink a vat of tea/cofee and eat a heck of a lot of biscuits afterwards too.

BSL interpretation will be provided.

We can’t wait to see you there and have fun celebrating life with you all!

Sunday Assembly London is free to attend and runs entirely on donations. Please support us if you can to keep it free for those who can’t. 

[Video: https://www.facebook.com/events/135617203547484/?active_tab=about ]

Being Amazed

With the recent discovery of a potentially habitable world within our interstellar back-garden, we should ask in a world of everyday miracles, what does it really mean to be amazed – and why does it matter?

Join Neil Monteiro – science demonstrator, outreach lecturer at Imperial College and explorer – to really think about what makes the world amazing. Learn about the latest planet to be found and hear from members of our community about their own amazement.

All that plus power ballads, guest slot from Sarah Nade and we’ll all drink a vat of tea/cofee and eat a heck of a lot of biscuits afterwards too.

BSL interpretation will be provided.

We can’t wait to see you there and have fun celebrating life with you all!

Sunday Assembly London is free to attend and runs entirely on donations. Please support us if you can to keep it free for those who can’t. 

Death

Come and join us for a Sunday Assembly all about Death!

Claire and Ru Callender are self taught, self proclaimed radical green undertakers, ritualists and sextons (graveyard managers) who run The Green Funeral Company. They have been undertakers for 17 years, and sextons for 3 and are coming to speak at Sunday Assembly about death, bodies, ritual and grief.

Through their work they have seen that what happens in between a death and the funeral is often more important than the funeral itself. Together with the family, they co create, write and hold the ceremony. They don’t employ bearers to carry the body, they don’t embalm, they don’t have a fleet of fancy cars. They do everything through the relationship formed between themselves and the family.

Ru and Claire are campaigning to change crematoriums and are part of a campaign to re legalise outdoor funeral pyres. They cite rave and punk as their influences.

(pretty cool huh?!)

As well as this mind bending talk, we’ll sing our hearts out, hear stories from members of the community, drink a vat of tea/cofee and eat a heck of a lot of biscuits afterwards too.

BSL interpretation will be provided.

We can’t wait to see you there and have fun celebrating life (and death) with you all!

Sunday Assembly London is free to attend and runs entirely on donations. Please support us if you can to keep it free for those who can’t.

Storytelling

Oh yes!

We are being joined by the very awesome Sebastian Castro Sasso, a former CNN reporter and founder of ECHO. Seb is on a quest to improve the storytelling skills in our everyday lives so we can connect deeper with our communities.

In this talk, he’ll step outside his comfort zone and share his thoughts on emotional intelligence, romanticism (and how it’s making us miserable), and the power of acknowledgement.

As well as the brilliant Seb, we’ll sing our hearts out, hear stories from members of the community, drink a vat of tea/cofee and eat a heck of a lot of biscuits afterwards too.

BSL interpretation will be provided.

We can’t wait to see you there and have fun celebrating life with you all!

Sunday Assembly London is free to attend and runs entirely on donations. Please support us if you can to keep it free for those who can’t.

War: What is it Good For?

Big news people!

Pippa Evans is back and will be hosting this remembrance inspired assembly. As if that wasn’t exciting enough, we have the incredible Mark Vernon joining us. He will be speaking on Inner and Outer War and will explore how war could be a projection of our internal conflicts.

Wowsers!

We’ll also be singing our hearts out, hearing stories from members of the community, drinking a vat of tea/cofee and eating a heck of a lot of biscuits afterwards too.

BSL interpretation will be provided.

We can’t wait to see you there and have fun celebrating life with you all!

Sunday Assembly London is free to attend and runs entirely on donations. Please support us if you can to keep it free for those who can’t. 

An Equal Difference

We are so delighted to announce that we have the excellent G.S. Motola coming to speak at Sunday Assembly on the 20 November.

After hearing about Iceland’s insightful reaction to the financial crisis of 2008, i.e. to ‘feminise banking’, photographer and writer G.S. Motola travelled to Iceland to photograph and speak with women there. What she found kept her returning over the course of the next three years and eventually publishing a book including men and women called An Equal Difference.

During the course of making this book she experienced several actualisations. They gave her further insight into her own internalisation of gender constructs and caused her to rethink the concept of equality. One epiphany in particular greatly affected her photography, in particular the images she chose to publish. The perspective she has gained on herself, society and its influence on gender constructs has not only revolutionised her photography but her mindset as a person.

What a treat we’re in for! And if that’s not enough, we’ll be singing our hearts out, hearing stories from members of the community, drinking a vat of tea/coffee and eating a heck of a lot of biscuits afterwards too.

BSL interpretation will be provided.

We can’t wait to see you there and have fun celebrating life with you all!

Sunday Assembly London is free to attend and runs entirely on donations. Please support us if you can to keep it free for those who can’t.

Family Time

It’s December! Let’s start talking about what happens in this brilliant, mad and fun month.

We are being joined by Jamie Catto who is speaking to us about how we can treat all the challenges, triggers, and crazy head-trips of family time as mirrors and invitations to self-awareness.

For millions of people, once they are through the mundane commercialisation of December in the 21st century, the month itself can really suck. A minefield of projection, reactivity and semi-conscious hysteria, any notions of inner progress built up throughout the year are often quickly forgotten.

Yet amidst the chaos of the festive season in 2016, there lies a golden opportunity!

Instead of intensely striving just to get through, we invite you to transform this time that may be spent with family, into the liberating excuse it can be – and give yourselves something else: Self-Awareness and Lightening-Up.

Come and tune up your festive neurology so you’re ready to float serenely through your family’s dysfunction and disconnection.

And if that’s not enough, we’ll be singing our hearts out, hearing stories from members of the community, drinking a vat of tea/coffee and eating a heck of a lot of biscuits afterwards too.

BSL interpretation will be provided.

We can’t wait to see you there and have fun celebrating life with you all!

Sunday Assembly London is free to attend and runs entirely on donations. Please support us if you can to keep it free for those who can’t. 

Nothing: The Best Present (Festive Finale!)

For the last Sunday Assembly London of 2016 we are joined by the amazing Laurence Shorter. In his quest to understand the secrets of happiness, he has authored a bestselling book on positive thinking (The Optimist, 2009), written and performed his own one-man show at the Edinburgh Festival, and created the Lazy Guru, the world’s first cartoon guide to mindfulness and flow.

In a world that never stops, Laurence will talk about the importance of rest and his lifelong quest to find creativity by making space for it to flourish on its own. He will share everything he knows about genius, inspiration and the effortless art of making good things happen.

As well as Laurence, we have the wonderful Natalie Charles Trying Her Best and some of our favourite festive power ballads to belt out with your friends and family!

Afterwards we will be drinking a vat of tea/coffee and eating a heck of a lot of biscuits.

BSL interpretation will be provided.

We can’t wait to see you there and have fun celebrating life with you all and saying cheerio to 2016!

Sunday Assembly London is free to attend and runs entirely on donations. Please support us if you can to keep it free for those who can’t.

Search

Look Around

News Main Events Not-Just-Sunday Activities Past Events

Stay up to date

Don't be a stranger! We'd love to stay in touch, but we'll only do this with your permission. Sign up here to subscribe to our newsletter!