Our assemblies & events in July-December 2024

11:00 am, December 15 2024

Backyard Comedy Club, Bethnal Green

Speaker: Lots

Poet: Lots

Space Oddity

Right now, something strange is going on in the cosmos… Scientists are uncovering a catalogue of weird phenomena that simply can’t be explained by our long-established theories of the universe.

After decades of fruitless searching, could we finally be catching glimpses of a profound new view of our physical world? Or are we being fooled by cruel tricks of the data?

To celebrate the launch of his recent book, experimental physicist at CERN and acclaimed science presenter Dr Harry Cliff took us through some of this groundbreaking new research.

Cantat Ergo Sumus: Hymns of the Philosophers

Ever been moved by Nietzsche’s philosophical musings, but been desperate to hear them sung in the style of Bob Dylan? We were joined by the inimitable Paul Lodge, musician and Professor of Philosophy at Oxford University, who does just that!

This was a titillating blend of music, philosophy and literature as Paul offered his unique musical interpretations of the work of Nietzsche as well as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walter Benjamin and Margaret Cavendish.

Paul’s songs have been featured on BBC Radio Oxford Introducing and BBC Radio Cumbria. In 2022 he launched his album Preludes to Wordsworth in the poet’s home, Rydal Mount, at the invitation of Wordsworth’s descendants.

Cantat Ergo Sumus is Latin for It sings, therefore we are.

We were also joined by comedian and poet Sam Rix who brought us a joyous medley of hilarious spoken word exploring creativity, social media and everything in between.

There were four fantastic songs performed by our very own Sunday Assembly Band, followed by tea, biscuits and chats with members of our community.

This was our last Sunday Assembly before we took our customary break over August. But before that we had our equally customary post-Assembly picnic and Boardgames Club.

Sundae Assembly Special – The Inside Scoop

  • 1st September 2024, 11:00am
  • Speaker: Tom Boulton
  • Poet: Morwenna James

I Scream, You Scream! To mark the closing of our summer season, we paid homage to that oh so sweet, delectable and enduring symbol of Summertime to both young and old – the mighty ice cream cone!

Sunday Assembly’s own Tom Boulton has worked as an ice cream scientist for Unilever and Little Moons for 10 years. Today he enlightened us with a talk on the history and culture of this most iconic sweet treat; the technology and processes in how it is made and what goes into concocting the best flavours.

We also welcomed back Morwenna James, spoken word artist and published poet who uses radical honesty and self-deprecation to explore universal themes with a playful, humorous slant.

Watch Morwenna performing her poem Different Ice Cream for Sunday Assembly

We followed this Sunday Assembly with an ice cream crawl around East London…

We departed from the Backyard Comedy Club immediately following the Assembly at 1pm, where we followed the rocky road onto:

1. E5 Bakehouse

Home to the famous Softy & Swirly. We sampled grown-up flavours such as loganberry and sheep’s ricotta as well as salted black sesame, honey with lemon and cardamom, and malted vanilla.

They also had La Grotta ices, a selection of seasonal frozen treats with an emphasis on fresh-tasting fruity combos – think pomegranate and leafy orange, pear and myrtle, wild fig and watermelon, or quince and bramley apple pie. 

2. Soft Serve Society

There were four basic flavours (vanilla, matcha, charcoal and coconut), but the thrill was in the photogenic toppings, which are arranged in Petri dishes on the counter ready for sprinkling.

3. Darlish 

Luxury ice cream inspired by natural botanicals and the magical flavours of the Middle East, including black tahini halva chunk, honey rum, date molasses & raisin, and Turkish coffee.

Gwawr Thomas wrote:

‘Such a lovely day today celebrating all things ice cream with Sunday Assembly – sorry, Sundae Assembly – pals, beginning with a fascinating talk about the science of ice cream making by the man whose job we all covet, Tom Boulton; progressing through a sampling of some delicious new Little Moons flavours, and culminating in a fabulous ice cream crawl around East London led by Ice Cream Queen Magdalena Hunter.’

Hanna Finn wrote:

‘Another great Sunday Assembly, with free ice cream, followed by the most money I’ve spent on ice cream in one day 😄 Thank you to Tom for the great ice cream science talk, and Mags for the tour of three different ice cream places in East London!

I had a cherry ice lolly, Oreo cheesecake ice cream in a cone, and a cup of rhubarb, pomegranate and rose gelato 😋

Great to see everyone, and I’m glad we convinced two first timers, Naomi and Fiona, to join us for a few hours of walking and ice cream eating.’

Photo credit: Gwawr Thomas

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 also had a multigenerational poetry slot, with Gale Burns and Nadira Clare Wallace each offering some spoken word across the generation gap.

Gale Burns wrote:

‘Great fun to read poetry at the Sunday Assembly (a secular celebration on a Sunday in Bethnal Green) with Nadira Clare Wallace on the theme of different generations. Drop by one week, and you get free cake!’

Photo credit: Gale Burns

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.

Hanna Finn wrote:

‘Sunday Assembly featured a talk by artist Steve Chapman, who told us about his hilarious art projects which often include the general public in weird and wonderful ways.

We took several creative challenges from his book WTFebruary and smooshed them into one:

  1. Use discarded materials (an orange window blind someone was throwing out)
  2. Draw birds, badly. Add made up bird sounds and names.
  3. Start your own art gallery

Alan and I workshopped the name of the gallery by asking the audience to give us adjectives and bird names, and then randomly choosing two words. Then everyone was encouraged to draw birds (badly) before I strung them onto black string.’

We also had poetry from Kay Scorah, a multi-skilled creative who brings 70 years of experiment, risk, rage and learning to her writing.

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.

Sunday Assembly’s own 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.

Astrid guided 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 were 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.

Multicolour Maths

  • 3rd November 2024, 11:00am
  • Speaker & performer: Brook Tate

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.

We were joined by artist, musician and numberphobe-turned-numberphile Brook Tate. As someone who severely struggled with mainstream methods of education, he designed 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 also performed a song from his recent musical theatre piece.

Brook Tate’s website

Multicolour Maths website

This assembly was accompanied by our 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.

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!’

Thank you to Astrid for organising our Winter Market, and to everyone who bought something from the wonderful range of items on offer!

Keep Taking The Tablets – The Story of Antibiotics

  • 17 November 2024, 11:00am
  • Speaker: Dr. Peter Altman
  • Poet: Kay Scorah

Our guest speaker: Dr. Peter Altman

Sniff sniff, dribble dribble, cough cough. As we creep ever more into the cold and darkness of winter, we may all be feeling more under the weather than usual, with an increase in ill health rising significantly over the winter months, when the body is less effective in fighting off infections.

Antibiotics have been a central part of our society’s approach to managing infectious diseases for nearly a century. But how were they discovered, and when and by whom? And does it really involve a 3,500 year old mouldy sandwich from Ancient Egypt?

Dr. Peter Altman is a biochemist, medical researcher and publisher and a veteran magician, having been a member of the Magic Circle since 1984. He shared some of his latest research from his third book, currently in production, Amazing Discoveries in Science.

We were also thrilled to have some poetry from former biochemist herself, Kay Scorah, who brought 70 years’ worth of experiment and creativity to her writing.

Greek Wisdom for the Modern Age

  • 1st December 2024, 11:00am
  • Speaker: John Graves
  • Poet: Anna Herber

In our post-capitalist society it is easy to wonder why so many of us are still struggling with a feeling of meaninglessness.

More than 2000 years ago, Aristotle, Epicurus and the Stoics were pondering the same things and providing potential solutions to this dilemma.

John Graves is a teacher of Psychotherapeutic Studies, Life Coach, and life-long philosophy student sparked by the early teachings of his Greek mother.

He introduced us to some of the wisdom from our Ancient Agony Uncles – showing us how relevant these ideas still are and how closely they matched Sunday Assembly’s own three-part philosophy of living better, helping often and wondering more.

We were also thrilled to have spoken word poetry by Anna Herber – a poet, songwriter & speaker – who has helped so many people find an inner sense of purpose.

Watch one of Anna’s Sunday Assembly poetry readings on Instagram

Yule Rock 2024

  • 7:00 pm, December 13 2024
  • Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion St, London WC1R 4RL

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

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

We sang along to all your favourite Christmas classics once again, from Wham! to Wizzard, with our inimitable live band. We also hosted a silent auction and raffle, with a delectable array of prizes on offer to get you even more in the festive mood.

We had a cashless bar serving alcoholic and alcohol-free beverages as well as the requisite mince pies.

We were 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.

Thanks to everyone who came dressed in their Yuletide best! Sparkles, baubles, tinsel and of course, questionable Christmas jumpers were actively encouraged.

Special thanks to our brilliant Sunday Assembly crew for another Yule Rock to remember!

Photo credit: Gwawr Thomas

This all-ages party was full of joy for family and friends. Doors opened at 7pm for drinks, with the singing and dancing kicking off at 7:30pm.

About Yule Rock and Sunday Assembly:

Yule Rock is brought to you every year 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.

Our songs

  • Walking In The Air – from The Snowman
  • Santa Claus Is Coming To Town – Jackson 5
  • Winter Wonderland – Darlene Love
  • It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year – Andy Williams
  • Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – Darlene Love
  • Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree – Brenda Lee
  • It’s Christmas Time – Status Quo
  • What Feliz Navidad Means To Me – Stevie Wonder
  • Last Christmas – Wham!
  • I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday – Wizzard

Then after the interval…

  • The Twelve Days Of Christmas
  • Merry Christmas Everyone – Shakin’ Stevens
  • Step Into Christmas – Elton John
  • Underneath The Tree – Kelly Clarkson
  • Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End) – The Darkness
  • Let It Go – from Frozen
  • Fairytale Of New York – The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl
  • Stay Another Day – East 17
  • All I Want For Christmas Is You – Mariah Carey
  • Merry Xmas Everybody – Slade

Nature Needs Us: How to Be a Guardian of the Natural World

Our guest speaker: Paul Powlesland

In August 2024, environmentalist and barrister, Paul Powlesland made history, by becoming the first member of a UK jury to swear an oath on a river: his beloved River Roding, where he both lives and spends time restoring. A co-founder of the River Roding Trust, Paul has also worked with locals to plant hundreds of trees, remove over a thousand bags of rubbish and hoist precisely 75 shopping trolleys from the Roding’s clay-thick riverbed.

We were thrilled to welcome Paul to Sunday Assembly today to share his journey and his wisdom on the things that we can all do to be better stewards to the natural world. Paul is also co-founder of Lawyers for Nature, an advocacy group calling for the UK to grant rivers a legal right of protection.

We were also excited to have some spoken word from Esme Fay Finch, a poet, children’s author and forest school teacher, whose project Ways of the Wild inspires and educates children about environmental matters through storytelling, art workshops and dance.

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