Archive for the ‘Foundation’ Category

We’re pleased to announce the launch of the new Perspective Course website! During interfaith week we will be launching the new version of the Perspective Course Leader’s Guide which will be made freely available to groups which are interested in running their own version of the course. You can request a pack for your group from the website.

On Thursday we ran a special session of our homeless outreach work specifically designed to introduce new people. Turn out was great and we would like to say a big thank you to everyone who came down and gave up their evening to help out.

On Thursday I went up to Durham to speak to the Durham University Humanist and Secularist Society based there.

I delivered a talk on “Debating the Theists”, going through the common arguments and counter arguments that you often encounter when talking to believers. It was a talk I had given a few times to LAS in the past, though having lost all the notes and slides it was essentially a fresh talk with a similar theme running through it.

After a few technical problems at the start we finally got up and running and the talk went reasonably smoothly, though I missed out quite a few points I ended up kicking myself for during the question and answers afterward. Nether the less it was an enjoyable evening and I would like to thank DUHSS for inviting me up to speak.

On Tuesday we headed down to London for an evening with Greg Epstein, the Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University.

Greg’s presentation was reasonable, though the true value was in his ideas – he has a vision for Humanism that is truly excellent – building communities, providing a humanist alternative to things like religious charities and offering pastoral care to the non-religious are the exact ideals that we have been working towards at Chris Worfolk Foundation.

While it was clear there was some unease between Greg and the British Humanist Association, who advocate that such enterprises should be secular and we should remove both religious and humanist projects, they too seemed very taken with Greg’s ideas and hopefully this will lead to a more unified vision for the future of Humanism in the United Kingdom.

In March of this year we launched Atheist Stock, a stock photography website explicitly designed for local free-thinking groups to use.

Now, just seven months later, we’ve pleased to announce that the thousandth image has been added to the site. Indeed with the plethora of images, we accrued during September mean we have shot straight through that landmark and are now looking forward to future ones!

The October issue of Engage, the foundation’s newsletter is now available for download. This issue covers the recent Sunrise Conference, Secular Portal Resource Library, Humanist Chaplaincy Network and much more. You can download it from our website.

A big thank you to everyone who joined us in Leeds this weekend to make Sunrise Conference 2010 a huge success! Throughout the weekend we had an array of talks, seminars, workshops and discussions on a variety of topics – everything from leadership and organisation to marketing, the meaning of life and transhumanism! You can see photos from the event on our Facebook page and the conference website for full details.

On Friday we were down at the University of Leeds 2010 staff fair to promote the Humanist Chaplaincy at the university.

The first weekend of September will play host to our new national event, Sunrise Conference. Hosted by LUU Debating Society in association with ourselves, Sunrise will bring together leaders of free thinking groups from across the UK to share ideas, knowledge and experience.

The conference will feature multiple streams aimed at local groups, student groups and also provide training for those wishing to volunteer as humanist chaplains. A full timetable along with a list of speakers already signed up to speak at the conference can be found on the website.

This September we’ll be launching the Humanist Chaplaincy Network, a support network for those who are volunteering or working as non-religious chaplains. The network will provide training, resources, advice and a community. To find out more information, visit the website.