Archive for the ‘Humanism’ Category

This month’s guest speaker at the Humanist Association of Ireland was comedian Ed Byrne. He talked about growing up in Swords, which was a small town back then, and about his involvement in the Humanist movement, as well as comedy and how to approach making jokes about religion. All of it was super interesting. Thanks, Ed!

Sunday Assembly Leeds has been on hiatus since last summer. However, given the current crisis, we decided to stage a virtual assembly.

The theme was “how do I stay positive?” during the current crisis. We had talks, songs from The Assembly Line (in the form of videos of our previous gigs), a moment of reflection and a section called positive news in which we looked at the good things coming out of the current situation.

I’ve been playing around with the setup. The camera on my iPhone is much better than the one in my Mac, so I got a phone adapter for my tripod and used my phone as the main camera. I used my Aftershokz has headphones slash microphone. This freed up my laptop to control the webinar. The final thing you need to sort out is lighting, and angling myself between the window and a studio light seemed to work well.

Sunday Assembly Leeds took a break at the start of the year, with December being our last event while we changed around the format. After many long planning meetings we decided to relaunch in May with a theme of “why do we need other people?” and hosted by me.

We’ve moved to the city centre, now located in the Cosmopolitan Hotel, and we’ve played around with the format and the message. So, although our meetings look pretty similar, I think the core content of them is a lot different.

The feedback forms have so far been very positive, but we’ll see how it goes next month.

Earlier this month, we headed to All Bar One for the first in a series of summer socials at West Yorkshire Humanists.

They have this new policy where they will only serve food in the “restaurant area” now. It’s really annoying because it means we were crammed into a small space while most of the rest of the bar was empty.

In many ways, we were a victim of our own popularity. A table of four was available, but as there was around a dozen of us, we had to keep expanding.

I enjoy the talks that the society does but I prefer the socials because you get so much more time to talk and catch up with people.

In 2010, we set out on a mission to extend the direct action on-the-street work we were doing by organising a food drive for local homeless shelters. Seven years later and we’re celebrating our 8th annual food drive with another bumper event.

The event couldn’t happen without all of the generous donations you make, so thank you to everyone who provided food, clothing, toiletries and money.

Sarann, charity coordinator at West Yorkshire Humanists, headed the event. It’s thanks to her tireless work that it happens. I would also like to say a big thank you to the other groups who contribute to making the event so great. In particular, Darren from the Interfaith Vegan Alliance and Jo from Mill Hill Chapel who lends us his church. The event represents different groups coming together for the best of reasons.

Click the thumbnails to see the full-size image.

Last month, we celebrated 50 years of West Yorkshire Humanists.

Founded in 1967, the society has been through several different names and venues. We’re still going strong, as the local group for Leeds, Bradford and the surrounding area that is affiliated with the British Humanist Association and National Secular Society.

To celebrate in style, we booked our a carriage in Middleton Railway, the world’s oldest working railway, before finishing up with a banquet meal at Brasserie Blanc.

A total of 27 people joined us for the event, including one of the founding members of the group, Bob Tee. Bob served as treasurer of the group for 37 years, so I still have a long way to go to catch up to him!

I would like to say thank you to everyone who came along and made the day so special. See you in 2067 for the next Jubilee!

Earlier this month saw the 2017 AGM of West Yorkshire Humanists. It was a changing of the guard as Moz, our chair for almost the past decade, stepped down to let the younger dynamic young go-getters take over.

Laurence and Chris H were elected as joint chairs.

We then followed this with a group discussion on “should Humanism be political”. It seemed very apt given the same day was the General Election. Finally, we headed over to The George for some drinks.

The annual West Yorkshire Humanist’s summer social has been running since long before my time. For the past two years, we have been running a picnic at Kirkstall Abbey. Last year, we also added a Winter Social, to fill in the gap left by the Atheist Society’s Winter Solstice meals.

This year we had ten people attend, including plenty of old faces, and some new faces too.

The venue was the Lawnswood Arms, as it was last year. The food was fine. It is a family-friendly and affordable pub, with mains priced around £7-10, so you got what you paid for: the food turned up edible and hot, with is all you really need when you have good company.

I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who helped out with the Humanist Action Group‘s 2016 Holiday Food Drive for local homeless shelters.

Once again it was a heroic effort from Sarann, charity coordinator at West Yorkshire Humanists, who organised the entire event. We also want thank Jo James for allowing us to use Mill Hill Chapel, and all the volunteers who donated items and turned up at the final boxing to help us package and deliver everything.

Here are some of my favourite photos from the event:

After the success of our summer picnic last year, we decided to repeat the same event for this year’s summer social. Kirkstall Abbey once again played host and the weather was once again kind to us.

Around 15 people turned up, along with loads of food. Michael even repeated his guided tour of the Abbey for those who wanted to attend. A good day all round.