Happy New Year! What a year 2015 was!

Happy New Year!

2015 has been an amazing year for me, I know that I am lucky that this has been the case, the law of averages says that every year cannot be great for everyone, but 2015 has been one of the best for me!

Some amazing threads have run through the year, Skeptics in the Pub has continued to be amazing, with particular highlights being Alom Shaha and Michael Marshall, I regret not having made it to QED this year, but we will rectify that next year!

I did my first ever stand up routine in March, which was terrifying but fun, then was invited by Charlie to do his Stand Up Philosophy night in London, which I was very nervous and not very good, but I learned a lot! then a book related comedy set at the book launch for Dane John Cobain, which was not so bad! Have continued to do bits an pieces throughout the year, as well as MCing the Open Mic night at the Arts Centre.

The Elections happened, and I stood as a candidate for Abbey Ward in Wycombe, I only really had to get a few signatures and deliver some leaflets, but a great experience and one I will maybe take more seriously in the future!

Holidays! Four amazing trips away with Ivonne, i know, we are massively lucky to be able to do this, A great long weekend in Bavaria seeing friends, A week in the sun near Palma in Majorca, a week at Ivonne;s parents, and a very relaxed week in Menorca.

Book group has kept going through the year, we have had some great conversations, but also some low turnouts. Would love this to be a success, but despite have hundreds of people signed up it seems that the enthusiasm is lacking... need to think about the future of this for 2016.

I moved to the Henley Branch at work, this is not ideal, but does give me a chance to be closer to Ed Atkinsons Skeptics and Believers group, which has had a great year, and I even led a discussion on Happiness, which although varied from the normal tone of the evening seemed to go down ok!

So much more was amazing, a weekend in Brighton, the continuing fun that is Kathryn Taylors Philosophy in the Pub in Chesham, various comedy nights, a few days in Exeter, my Dads Birthday weekend at Kay and Johns, countless lovely meals, Writers group, visits to London...

But the year for me will be mostly defined by Sunday Assembly, and specifically the setting up of our very own community in High Wycombe, In March it was just an idea in the heads of myself and Gemma and maybe a few others, by October it was a reality and we had our launch event with 40 people. I won't mention all who made this happen, as you know who you are! Some great new friends made, a brilliant day in London with other Sunday assembly Groups in December, and 2016 will be the year of finding our direction for the group, exciting times ahead!

Roll on 2016!

Sunday Assembly High Wycombe... our second coming...

Well, we managed to pull it off again, but not without an element of stress. Here is how it played out, based on my report submitted to Sunday Assembly International...

It's Friday night before our second ever Assembly, the High Wycombe Sunday Assembly organisers Facebook group jolts into life,

“You know it's remembrance Sunday, what are we going to do about the 2 minute silence at 11am”. This seems like a minor problem, we delay the start, put something respectful on the screen, explain sensitively to people as they come in... The irony that we forgot Remembrance day is not lost on us.

A new Facebook notification comes in...

“And you know we meet right opposite the War Memorial...” Yes, our venue could not be closer to the town War Memorial, it was as if the cafe had been built in that location especially for its wonderful views of the memorial.

A hasty rearrangement of the schedule takes place, we can't be singing “Don't Stop Me Now” while those outside are respectfully remembering the dead. We will start later, we can do talky stuff at the start, we can move songs to later, yeah, this can work, no problem.

Sunday comes, we apprehensively share breakfast together at a local restaurant, we make our way over to the venue, will the roads be packed with people? No, we are lucky, just a few people milling around, this is OK, some people will gather for the silence then disperse, we can start at five past 11 and all will be well.

Except that the pavement outside fills up with people, and the road outside fills up with people, a PA system is turned out outside, trumpeters turn up, brass bands turn up, a military march of uniformed soldiers goes past. Veterans with their medals descend on the area right outside the cafe we meet in, only separated by a pane of glass

Our speaker for the morning texts me “Just walking past a roadblock, amazing, didn't know you would attract so many people”, this made me smile... for a short time.

The church bells die out, signifying that it is eleven, we have just about got our equipment inside in time, we display the word 'Remember' on the screen, Twenty-five of us sit, some respectfully, some awkwardly. The silence ends with a trumpet, but the tone outside remains respectful, people don't float away as we expected, no, there are wreaths to lay, prayers to say, and for us this means a delay.

It is twenty past, people are happily chatting to each other, some cake has even been passed around, actually this is what it is all about, but it was not the plan, and when something is not the plan it feels uncomfortable. We need to start, we cancel a song from the running order, we tell our speaker his talk will be up first, people can't complain outside about someone talking, surely?

Our hosts start the service, they explain what Sunday Assembly is all about, we have a reading, an announcement that we will be singing our first song. THIS IS NOT THE NEW PLAN! WE CANCELLED THE SONG! We quickly find the slides for the song, BUT WE CANCELLED THE SONG!

I turn and look outside, and, like a miracle has happened, the crowd has totally dispersed, there are no old men with medals, the wreaths are laid, not a trumpeter in sight, and inexplicably there is an ambulance outside taking any attention away of noise we might be making.

We sing the first song, Our speaker gives an amazing talk., we have our very own moment of silence, we finish at 12.15 and have a very fast clear up, we go to the pub and have a lovely time. We all knew that it would be ok in the end, didn't we? Yes, never a doubt, never a doubt.

Do join us for our next Assembly on the 13th December! www.facebook.com/WycombeSundayAssembly/

We did it! Sunday Assembly High Wycombe is now a thing!

After 3 months of planning the first Sunday Assembly in High Wycombe became reality!

Here is a slightly amended report of the first service which I sent to Sunday Assembly International.

Sunday Assembly High Wycombe Report. 11^th October 2015

On Sunday we had our first Sunday Assembly High Wycombe event.

We were very pleased with how our service went, from about twenty minutes before the room started to fill up, the enthusiastic “Love bombers” from SA London were some of the first to arrive and before long we were packing 40 people into quite a small space!

I gave a very brief introduction, then the Sunday Assembly Reading band, who kindly provided the music for our first event, went straight into Walking on Sunshine, and the energy in the room just lifted!

I then explained what Sunday Assembly was all about, using the motto (Live Better, Help Often, Wonder More) and then we went into a short audio story that introduced our theme, which was “Overcome”. We sang Close to You and had our talk from Kathryn Taylor, She hit just the right tone and was very moving and personal.

After another song Gemma did a ”Doing her best” segment, which fitted the theme and was very amusing, then a moment of silence, and a chance for the congregation to greet each other.

Notices were simply an appeal for people who would like to help and join the team, especially for the music, and then we sang a final song (The Bare Necessities), which was great fun, and after a quick thanks to everyone we were mingling and drinking tea and eating cakes.

Just 4 weeks now to get the next event together...

Sunday Assembly High Wycombe

Well, things are starting to come together - the first Sunday Assembly in High Wycombe will be on 11th October at 11am!

If you don't know what Sunday Assembly is then think of a church service, with songs, and readings, and poems, and a talk, and community - but without the need for any of the congregation to have any supernatural beliefs, and no mention of god in the service.

It's more complicated than that perhaps (a humanistic edge, some existential ideas, some psychology thrown in, some mindfulness... the list goes on). You can find out more at the main Sunday Assembly site

We have now got a venue, a speaker, and a theme all sorted, the music is coming together bit by bit but remains my main concern, as I don't really understand the ins and outs of how a band works, or how music works for that matter, but we are getting there.

We still need to print and make some banners to make the venue look amazing, we need some poetry readings, we need people to meet and greet and make teas and coffees. We need to sort the running order, the timings and the publicity. If you can help, let us know!

But we are now only six weeks away from this happening, and happen it will, if we are ready or not! Exciting times, and thanks for all the people who have helped this come together, especially Gemma whose enthusiasm got the whole project off the ground in the first place!

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