What we’re about
Sunday Assembly is “a secular congregation that celebrates life”. We are a group of generally non-religious people that get together and listen to a talk, sing some fun pop songs, and eat tea and cake. That’s pretty much it. You can call it “atheist church”, “humanist church”, “secular community”—the labels are not as important is the intention, which is to help each other “live better, help often, and wonder more”. The monthly assembly is our flagship event for celebrating together and nurturing a wider secular community. The idea started in London in January of last year with Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans, two stand-up comedians that decided they wanted the best parts of church/synagogue/mosque/faith-community “without the god bit”. They put the idea out to their community and got such an overwhelmingly positive response that the thing went a little bit viral, with 30 assemblies popping up worldwide practically overnight. Since then the thing has gone way viral, with about 80 new assemblies working to launch in September. “Well doesn’t my city already have a dozen secular groups and a few Unitarian churches?” I hear you asking yourselves? Yes, and thank goodness for that. We love these groups. We are not in competition with traditional secular organizations but instead hope to complement, energize and enliven them. The intellectual and cerebral aspect of our average secular groups is very important and indispensable, but it doesn’t often leverage the positive power of emotion, music and poetry, or just enjoying ourselves as a group. Also, the assembly format is very accessible to families with children and seems to attract a variety of ages. Come check us out!
