Regulars out there will know that we’re lucky enough to have a resident poet in our congregation. Rosa sometimes performs poems she’s written especially for our assemblies, based on that month’s theme.

Well, it’s about time some of her wonderful creations were immortalised here, so everyone can enjoy them as often as they like!

Acceptance
Our judgey judgey culture is all-pervading,
Whether it be the immigrants invading
And stealing our jobs, on the scrounge.
It comes through our telly, it sits in our lounge
Or judging the judgers, the other way round.

Knowing what to accept, that’s the tricky bit.
What’s that AA thing? It’s got God in it.
About grace and wisdom for knowing when
It’s something to change, or then again
Just to accept: every day Zen

Cause the Buddhists are all over this particular one.
You contemplate, accept and then you move on.
Zen master I’m not though, although I have tried
To accept such things as my father who died
And chances untaken; my shame I can hide

From the world but not from myself
As life moves on, this cluttered mental shelf
Full of bugbears that need dealing with;
They sit, become mouldy, there’s no healing it.
The anger, resentment leave me reeling a bit

So…

Start small I reckon with every day stuff,
Take deep breaths for the smooth and the rough;
The IKEA delivery, it’s not come,
That recurring disagreement you have with your mum
That extra fat layer you have on your tum.

The wisdom of Disney to just Let It Go,
An emotional frisbee that you can throw.
Don’t let it fester, clear out the inside,
Say fare thee well to resentment besides,
A spiritual laundry, all washed out and dried.

Play
This is my play within my week
No skipping rope, no hide and seek
Just pen and paper, words and rhythm
Skip and seek the poem hidden

Underneath the every day
Mundane worries stripped away
Wait and leap on thoughts and rhymes
All been used a thousand times.

So this, and then sorry to say
Like many adults here today
A glass of booze, or two, or three
And who comes out? A playful me.

The life and soul, I have been known
To find the bruises getting home,
The only proof on shaky Sunday;
Saturday, must have been a fun day.

Who here can say they haven’t used
The demon drink to be amused
By each other’s playful side?
A cheekiness we often hide

In the humdrum of the day-to-day
Too kowtowed to peel away
The sensible and adult masks
Ensuring we complete the tasks.

My child though is no greater gift,
An opportunity to lift
The modest skirts of adultness
And put my play skills to the test.

We bounce about, we laugh and sing.
We play act monster, witch and king.
And in that moment, if you commit
To acting like a total twit

All ego can be left behind,
We open up our just now mind.
We need to play; it is a break
From all the promises we make.

So act the fool, laugh and tickle,
Roll around, embrace the fickle!

Thanks, Rosa!

And if there are any other closet poets out there who fancy sharing something at an assembly, do get in touch. We’d love to hear from you!

 

 

 

What a lovely day we had on Sunday at Brighton’s fabulous Spiegeltent. I hope it’s not presumptuous to say that a good time was had by all…

It was such a privilege to be invited back by Brighton Fringe and particularly to return to the grandest tent you’ll find that doesn’t come with its own ringmaster. Not least because it means it’s very likely that filing in alongside our lovely regulars were people who’d never heard of Sunday Assembly before.

After a rousing welcome by our daffodil-yellow-clad and ever-chipper host Rob, we got things going with ‘We Go Together’ from Grease. The choir, newly led by congregant Jinny, were in fabulous voice and more than made up for a few of us (ahem, me) stumbling just a little over the scatting: ‘We go together like somethingsomethingsomething sha-bippety-bip-de bop…’. Tongue-tying, but lots of fun.

I felt pretty spoilt by our four amazing speakers for this one. I say speakers, though our reading this month was actually a singing. Wonderfully, we’d been approached by Norwegian singer Kine Kvalstad (via Sarah, one of our congregants: thank you, Sarah!). Kine is part of Singing Cities, an inclusive initiative that works to spread the magic and benefits of singing. She began by reminding us all of the best way to breathe in (into your belly), then how to breathe out on a note. After which, of course, the congregation could sing back up for Kine’s beautiful performance of her own song ‘Breathe’. As well as do the latter much more effectively too.

Next came our main speaker, and we were so happy to welcome David Bramwell, a bit of a Brighton legend: founder and host of the Catalyst Club, author, speaker and occasional Radio 4 presenter, we were lucky he had time to pop by! The tale David had to tell was of the year he spent searching for utopia, or something like it. After living among many communities, from Scotland to California, he not only found himself back where he started, he realised that might have been where he could find some kind of utopia all along. It may matter less where you are and more who you’re with, and how you connect with them. He left us with a quote from Julia, a friend he made during his quest: ‘There is hope in people. Not systems. Or governments. Simply in people.’

We had a brief Taylor Swift interlude where we were all invited to ‘Shake if off’ and to marvel at Ella and Sophia in the choir rapping. (They were fantastic. Word.)

Then it was time for everyone’s favourite wish-he’d-been-my-teacher, Russell. His take on the theme was in exploring the way that radio waves allow us to connect over long distances. This led to a show-and-tell tour through the electromagnetic spectrum using an old TV, a microwave oven, an Infrared heat lamp, a UV tanning lamp, and a Geiger counter. We learned many things along the way, including that white noise is partly cosmic background radiation left over from the Big Bang; after cataract surgery Monet could see some UV wavelengths of light; and if you put a crisp packet in the microwave it will shrink to a tiny version of itself. (And our apologies to the parents of all the kids who probably went home wanting to do just that.) He may also have briefly microwaved fire. (Again, parents, really sorry.)

We also had the great pleasure of welcoming back previous speaker Bernadette Russell for our This Much I Know segment. Bernadette gave us a very brief but inspiring ‘Ted talk’, which is to say a talk about a man named Ted. After being invited as an artist to be part of an outreach programme, Bernadette went from expecting to talk and perform to realising how important it can be to just listen. In doing so she learned Ted’s story of overcoming his stage fright to become a singer at 84, and that we all have stories to tell, if someone is just willing to take the time to hear them.

After our moment of silent reflection and a chance to say hello to temporary neighbours and possible new friends, we joined voices one more time with the song everyone clearly knew best: the Beatles’ ‘All You Need Is Love’.

The theme of ‘connection’ (thought up by Jo, who has a serious talent for themes) really did feel perfect. And not only because it was the thread that ran in various guises throughout our speakers’ topics, but because it feels so fitting for Sunday Assembly generally. From my position at the back of the tent I could look out over people who’d been brought together, however briefly, for this event. Who might build on a connection they made that day, or after a later event. And I could see the members of our lovely team who come together to create these events. People who’ve come into my life (or maybe I came into theirs) because of this flipping lovely organisation. We really must work on an assembly with the theme ‘Lucky’.

Can’t wait to welcome you back to St Andrew’s on 28 June, friends.

Catie x

PS Don’t forget: there’s no assembly on 24 May!

PPS If you want to experience David Bramwell’s adventures in full, you can read about them in his book. And check out Zocalo, the simple annual festival of neighbour meeting neighbour by means of a chair outside their house and time spent together. You could even have a look at Bernadette Russell’s happiness-spreading Happy Monday project while you’re at it.

Yesterday (25th April) marked two years since Anita, Amy, Sanderson and I met in a pub in Trafalgar Street to talk for the first time about setting up a Sunday Assembly in Brighton … and what an incredible two years it has been!  Now, as a strong and supportive 9-person committee and with the ongoing invaluable help from a wonderful team of volunteers and enthusiastic congregants, the Sunday Assembly Brighton community continues to grow.

Perhaps rather poignantly, Sanderson and a team of organisers and volunteers from Sunday Assembly in Bristol and London joined us for today’s service, partly as a social visit, but mainly to undertake the new process of accreditation, so that we could be assessed for meeting a set of criteria to be able to continue to operate under the Sunday Assembly banner (contact us if you are interested to find out more about this process).  After a long discussion including feedback on what we are doing well and where we could improve, we were declared to be highly successful and are now an accredited group within the Sunday Assembly movement.

The theme today was ‘play’, and our host Rob, playful as ever, got us off to a lively start and led us into singing Pinball Wizard.

Rosa presented her bespoke poem, my favourite line of which talked of following the lead of children in ‘lifting the modest skirts of adultness’.

Andy Cain, former therapist and comedy improviser gave our main talk, suggesting how we can regain the playfulness that we perhaps remember from our childhood, but which we have since lost due to our adult desire for control and certainty.

He suggested the ways to play are to:

• Be present
• Let yourself fail
• Listen – allow yourself to be changed
• Build on what you’re given
• Relax and have fun

He invited us to participate in an exercise of creating a story using words provided by our neighbour.  When I woke up this morning, I couldn’t have imagined that I would be telling a new-found friend the story of an anaemic platypus who, having been given a blood transfusion by a passing mermaid, restored his energy and was once more able to play with his friends and share with them the ham and pickle sandwiches that his mum had made for his packed lunch!  It was a fun and liberating exercise.

He also suggested some things you can do:

• Give play some importance
• Look into your play history
• Spend time with playful people
• Create opportunities
• Choose to bring a playful attitude

He pointed out that ‘you don’t connect with others because you have 15 facts in your back pocket for filling uncomfortable silences: you connect over a sharing of fun and joint discovery’.

The up-tempo ‘Happy’ kept up the energy levels, led enthusiastically by our lively choir and band.

Adam told us what he knew about play in the slot we call ‘This Much I Know’, and inspired us by explaining how we can ‘transfer the mundane into the magic’.  He talked of making check-out conveyor city-scapes from your weekly groceries, or how following a dog can lead you to all sorts of new places.  Or how you could follow the outline of an image drawn onto a map and be led to new parts of a town that you wouldn’t otherwise have gone.  Or how you can have a spontaneous adventure by going on an ‘alphabet walk’, starting at a place beginning with ‘A’, then perhaps heading to a particular ‘B’uilding, turning a ‘C’orner and so on.  It’s surely only a matter of time that we will bump into one another lurking around the ‘x’-ray department, or meet each other at the ‘Z’oo where all our walks are sure to terminate! You can download a free copy of Adam’s book, Playground Earth, here:

www.smashwords.com/books/view/300580

We had a moment of silence to reflect on the theme, followed by our notices.

As a brief summary:

• Next service: ‘Connection’ Fringe special, 3^rd May 14.00-16.00 Spiegeltent, tickets here
• Second Sunday: Café Rouge, Haywards Heath 10^th May 15.00-17.00. Details can be requested by emailing us at sundayassemblybrighton@gmail.com FAO Izi
• Third Thursday: Earth and Stars 21^st May from 19.30
• Next planning meeting (1^st Thursday): Battle of Trafalgar, 4^th June, from 19.00
• Next service at St Andrew’s: 28^th June, 11.00 ‘Strength’
• Research project about the impact on participants of Sunday Assembly: details from Michael.price@brunel.ac.uk
• If you are interested in helping set up some events for children and family socials, get in touch by emailing sundayassemblybrighton@gmail.com, FAO Jo and Lynne
• Plus there is always a general call for cake bakers, volunteers, singers, musicians, suggestions, and donations for the Hangleton food bank…

Our final song was Play That Funky Music, which our band duly did!

Hope to see you next Sunday afternoon at the Spiegeltent.

Jo x

134 people came along to our service on 22^nd March to explore the theme of ‘Conflict’, wonderfully hosted by Anita and with musical accompaniment by our house-band and choir.

We were spoilt for choice with conflict-themed melodies, but – having thrown out suggestions such as ‘Street-Fighting Man’, ‘I Predict a Riot’ and ‘Kung-Foo fighting’ – we kicked off the proceedings with The Clash’s ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go?’  Thankfully, congregants opted for the former.

We were thrilled to introduce Chris McDermott as our main speaker.  Chris has a particular interest in mediation and conflict-resolution, and spoke animatedly about the subject.  He asked ‘who has ever experienced conflict in their life?’, and added ‘who would like to have a life free of conflict?…..well, I’m sorry but you can’t have it!’  Regardless of the nature of our anguish, conflict is as normal an emotion as happiness and, perhaps through techniques such as meditation and mindfulness, we can learn to ‘make friends’ with our negative emotions as well as the positive ones.  He elaborated by explaining that conflict is an important feature of human life, and it’s not always a bad thing as crisis can provide us with opportunities for personal development and growth.

His take-home messages to help us cope with conflict were:

• Use the breath to stay grounded and calm
• Be aware of your thoughts: the background commentary is probably not reality
• Befriend the most uncomfortable emotions
• Nurture compassion

Our second song, Let it Be, was dedicated to Colin Jolly, a regular attendee of Sunday Assembly Brighton who died unexpectedly last month.  Our thoughts and condolences go to his family and those who knew him.

Our resident science aficionado Russell asked ‘War, huh, yeah – what is it good for?’…As it turns out, quite a lot!  Amongst other things, incidental inventions during wartime efforts have included the neoprene wetsuit, the electronic computer and the use of microwaves for cooking leading to the development of the not-so-compact 6-foot tall ‘Radarange’.

Our ‘This Much I Know’ slot was filled by Tracey.  She spoke about her personal and traumatic experience of being burgled, and gave an emotive account of her brave decision to agree to meet her perpetrator as part of Victim Support’s ‘Restorative Justice’ programme. Tracey now volunteers for Victim Support and inspired us by showing that despite her ordeal she is able to help many other people.

Our service was wrapped up with Survivor’s ‘Eye of the Tiger’.

Our theme and our speakers reminded me of something that I heard recently on the radio.  In answer to the question ‘what makes us human?’ Val McDermid, Scottish crime writer, surmised that ‘the ability to show love, compassion and kindness – that’s what makes us human’ and it shows strength and courage to be able to show forgiveness, even when we have experienced suffering.

As a quick reminder, our notices included:

• Our next service on the fourth Sunday 26^th April at 11am at St Andrew’s
• Planning meeting on the first Thursday 2^nd April at 7pm at the Battle of Trafalgar
• Second Sunday at 3pm at Café Rouge in Haywards Heath, for those wanting a sort of Sunday Assembly ‘lite’ in the Mid-Sussex area
• Third Thursday, our monthly informal social at the Earth and Stars from 7.30pm
• Our May service will move from its regular time and place to be held on Sunday 3^rd May at 2pm at the Brighton Spiegeltent as part of the Brighton Fringe Festival.  Please note, this is a ticketed event so you will need to obtain tickets in advance.  Tickets are free but are subject to the Brighton Fringe’s booking fee of 95p per ticket.

http://boxoffice.brightonfringe.org/performance/20198/sunday-assembly

If you would like to contribute a reading, a main talk or an experience to share in the ‘This Much I Know’ slot or if you have any questions or feedback you can contact us at sundayassemblybrighton@gmail.com

Look forward to seeing you next time.

Jo x

Huge thanks to congregant Gareth for this guest post!

In addition to encouraging people to live better, help often and wonder more, the Sunday Assembly held on the 22nd of February in Brighton celebrated creativity.

It was definitely agreed that two songs were better than one as service kicked off with a full-throated rendition of Queen’s mighty ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ followed swiftly by ‘Walking on Sunshine’ by Katrina and the Waves.

The reading was a delightful excerpt from the website Letters of Note, in which committee member Catie told the beautiful response by Kurt Vonnegut to a group of students asking him to come and speak at their class. Alas, he was an old man in his 80s and was not able to attend, but his words of encouragement, to write a six-line poem and then tear it up and put bits in different bins, struck a chord (my downstairs neighbour doing just that after the service).

After Morecambe and Wise’s delightful ‘Bring Me Sunshine’ we moved along into the main talk.

The speaker Maggie Boden then shared her significant insights into the field of creativity, her lecture breaking down creativity into three aspects:

• Combination creativity, which combines familiar ideas in novel ways
• Exploratory creativity, which generates new structures in existing thinking styles
• Transformational creativity, which alters the rules of what is currently accepted or thought possible to create new structures and forms.

We then welcomed back Richard Robinson, organiser of the Brighton Science Festival and firm Sunday Assembly favourite. Richard’s talk was on the theme of failure, most notable creative failure, retelling a number of familiar and unfamiliar tales from the history of science that relied upon failure to succeed. My favourite being potato crisps being invented by an overly stubborn chef who had chips sent back to him twice for not being crisp enough, so he used a razor blade and fried them until they were that crisp they snapped. He was rewarded by two repeat orders and snacking has not been the same since.

The service drew to a close with the congregation of 170 up on their feet give it their all to the theme to Flash Dance.

Hope to see you in March

Gareth x

The congregants came in two by two. Hurrah!

Well, OK: there were probably a few groups of three, and some people came solo. There may have been the odd four. Basically, there was no particular pattern to how everyone turned up. But turn up they did: nearly 160 lovely folk got out of bed on a chilly but golden January morning and ventured out to contemplate, celebrate and sing about animals for an hour.

So, what did we learn this month? Many things. To name a few:

• The octopus is a hot contender for the title of Best Animal Ever.
• Very few people know the second verse to ‘Karma Chameleon’, while the best bit of ‘Crocodile Rock’ is undoubtedly the la-la-la-la-las.
• The collective noun for a group of crows is a ‘murder’, though it may be an undeservedly harsh word to associate with these rather clever creatures.
• We could all stand to take a life lesson or two from dogs.

There were lots of treats too, including not one but two poetry readings. Regular congregant and staple on the choir Lynn read Ted Hughes’ magnificent poem The Horses. And SA Brighton committee member Simon read his own creation, based in a penguin-themed shop in Simon’s Town, South Africa (it needs to be anthologised).

Our sermon was delivered by returning main speaker and director of February’s Brighton Science Festival Richard Robinson, who took us on a journey of our interpretations of animals through the ages by way of bestiaries (illustrated guides to animals both real and imaginary). It would seem that, where we may always have projected our human characteristics onto creatures, it’s becoming increasingly clear that we must also then acknowledge animal traits reflected in ourselves – and, inevitably, in our offices, as Richard himself has illustrated.

There was much rejoicing as SA Brighton favourite Russell Arnott returned with his semi-regular science slot. This month he revealed his nomination for the best animal in the world ever … Spoiler alert: it’s the octopus. And by the end of his talk, it seemed most people were convinced he was right. (C’mon: these creatures can open jars, fit through any space their beak does, are masters of disguise and are so smart that if kept singly in captivity, a person must be employed to provide regular stimulus or the octopus will die.) Plus, almost as many people were considering a career change to Octopus Entertainer.

This month’s This Much I Know came from Helen, who – after responding to a Facebook call-out for speakers – led us through a day as seen through the eyes of her dog, Bennie. A rescue Rottweiler-Labrador cross she chose when she went looking for something completely different, Bennie and Helen are approaching their ten-year anniversary. During that decade, Helen explained, she’s learned a lot from her canine companion, including how to enjoy every last little bit of what life brings you, even – or especially – when it doesn’t look exactly like you may have planned.

Our first-time host was committee member Maggie, and her enthusiasm and energy came in very handy in the face of (bane of every event organiser’s life) faulty equipment – in this case, a malfunctioning mic. Another lesson we might learn from dogs, as well as a general excitement about life, is that of persevering no matter the setback (heck, they’ll always keep bringing your present back to you, no matter how many times you hurl it away). Happily, Maggie and our speakers were full of this quality, and all did an admirable job of filling their lungs and PROJECTING THEIR VOICES while even our contingent of babies and littl’uns showed a lot of respectful quiet.

In the notices, Rob – resplendent in a flamingo-shaped hat – announced our new partnership with a local food bank: we’ll be having a drive at our assembly on 22 February. This is an initiative led by one of our congregants, and you can find a list of the food items they need on their Facebook page. Rob also announced that a troupe of us were due to be heading up to a training day the following Saturday to gather in London with other UK-based Sunday Assembly organisers. The idea is to find ways to make Sunday Assembly even better, so watch this space for more on that…

At the very start of the year, when the weather, post-Christmas lull and lack of light all generally whisper ‘stay at home’ and it’s not only the bears who are leaning towards hibernation, it was easy to imagine that we could have been looking at a lot of empty pews this assembly. It was particularly cheering, then, to see St Andrew’s gradually fill up. Even better to see it fill up with a collection of lovely people – both familiar faces and first-timers (36 of the latter) – all set to sing along, chat over tea, and readily forgive the odd technical difficulty. What wonderful animals you all are. You may even have pipped the octopus to the post.

See you next time!

Catie x

Our November service was based on the theme of ‘Gratitude’.  Anita warmed everyone up on this damp and chilly November morning with an interactive ice-breaker encouraging pairs to alternately count to three replacing 1-2-3 with a ‘clap’, a ‘stomp’ and a ‘whoop’ which was more difficult than you might think! There was more liveliness with our first song ‘Bare Necessities’, particularly enjoyed by our younger members who were dancing in the aisle at the back of the church.  Sally did a great job leading the choir, accompanied by the Sunday Assembly Brighton band, the trumpet-playing by Stuart being particularly impressive.

The reading was given by one of our newer congregation members, Gareth, who paid homage to Carl Sagan by delivering a passage known as the ‘Pale Blue Dot’, an incredibly inspiring piece which you can read here:  https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1816628-a-pale-blue-dot)

Our main sermon was by Jude Claybourne who, inspired by a friend’s talk on gratitude and her sister’s achievement of writing a sestina every day for 100 days, embarked on a project she called ‘100 Days of Gratitude’ http://daysofgratitude-jc.blogspot.co.uk/.  In October 2011, Jude set out to write a blog-post every day for 100 days which would explore what gratitude meant to her: by the time she came to speak at Sunday Assembly Brighton she was on Day 627.  Over the course of the project she would engage in a regular practice of gratitude and write about gratitude, the result being an inspiring and positive account of the small (and big) things in life for which she was grateful, also rousing the suspicion of a local shop-keeper who couldn’t quite fathom why Jude was smiling all the time.  She also observed her state of ‘pronoia’ (the opposite of paranoia) the effect of which, she noted, was to feel like everyone was conspiring do things which would make her happy.  Jude’s talk was followed quite fittingly by everyone singing Dido’s ‘Thank You’.

Our ‘This Much I Know’ slot was filled by Amy, one of our longest-attending congregants, who read some excerpts from her ‘Gratitude Journal’, many of which revolved around her appreciation of her friends, delicious cake and ‘face-cuddles’ with her cat.  The reading and talks this month gave us a lot to reflect on during the minute of contemplative silence.  Our final song was the suitably up-beat ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams, accompanied by some quite brilliant clapping by Pete the drummer.

Everyone’s contributions this month felt very relaxed and authentic and made for a really enjoyable service.  Planning the services can sometimes feel like a big responsibility but it’s well-worth it when everything comes together in an uplifting event.  I get a great deal of satisfaction at the end of the services when I stand at the back of the church observing our growing community of attendees as they chat to new people, whose paths they might not have otherwise crossed, enjoying a cup of tea and a slice of cake.  A few months ago someone commented to me that ‘it feels like it’s a real community’ and last week another attendee told me he has been taking the themes from each service and reflecting on them over the course of the month.  Similarly, inspired by Jude and Amy’s talks at the November service, I have started my own ‘Gratitude Journal’ and have been finding it a very pleasurable and nourishing thing to do every day.  I hope you find coming to Sunday Assembly Brighton a positive experience too, in whatever form that may be.  If you want to get more involved there are opportunities for everyone, whether it be in the form of contributing ideas, suggesting (or even writing!) a poem, filling the ‘This Much I Know’ slot with your story of an inspiring personal experience, bolstering our choir, joining the band, baking a cake, greeting people on the door, or helping us set up the church before the monthly service: please contact us at sundayassemblybrighton@gmail.com. You can also come along to one of our open planning meetings or our regular social event, ‘Third Thursday’ (resuming in January) – keep an eye on our website and social media for details.

Establishing the Sunday Assembly Brighton community would be impossible without the hours put in by our voluntary committee, organising team, volunteer helpers and band, not to mention those who bring along delicious cakes.  It is also thanks to the enthusiasm and warmth of everyone who comes along – for those things I, for one, am incredibly grateful!

Jo x

All the latest news from Sunday Assembly Brighton, including upcoming assemblies, volunteering opportunities and socials: http://eepurl.com/YyI9n

For our December assembly, we’re exploring the theme of ‘wonder’ with another morning of uplifting songs, inspiring talks and this time just a little bit of festive cheer…

The guest speaker is Kate Genevieve. Kate is an Artist and Director based in Brighton. Her work brings together research in science, technology and performance around how humans sense the environment and each other. She creates works for art galleries and theatre settings, as well as directing unusual site-specific projects for places such as Modernist tower blocks and heritage castles.

http://cargocollective.com/kategenevieve/

Doors open 10.30 for an 11am start.
St. Andrew’s Church, Waterloo Street, Hove, BN3 1AQ.