The Sunday Assembly - Day 9

     A Catholic and a Jainist walk into an Atheist "church" meeting.

     You're waiting for the punchline, aren't you? 

     Yeah, well, crazily enough this isn't a joke,
      it was my Sunday morning.

 

The sign says: Welcome to Sunday Assembly London. We will be starting at 11am.
Please take a seat as close to the front as possible and start a conversation with the person next to you.
Yes. This is THAT kind of place. 

      My friend Bhavya, who is from Mumbi, practices Jainism, which "prescribes a path of non-violence towards all living beings and emphasises spiritual independence and equality between all forms of life". He was the first person I met here in London and he is a student at UCL, where I am currently residing. Yesterday at breakfast we had an incredibly in-depth conversation about religion and philosophy. It was so interesting to hear about his religion and the similarities and differences between the religions we were raised practicing. Now I was raised Catholic. I am no longer a "practicing Catholic" and haven't been for awhile. And though I would consider myself spiritual, I wouldn't say I'm particularly religious. I do believe in some sort of higher being, but I also prescribe to the idea that humans should invest their faith in one another and strive to build strong communities and do good for one another through positivity and charity. OK. So that's my philosophy on that. 

     Bhavya also believes in a variation of God, minus the idol worship. And though his family is incredibly religious and quite strict, he too has wandered a bit away from the way that he was raised and adapted the religion to fit his spiritual need. 

    That being said, neither of us are atheists. However, he invited me to attend The Sunday Assembly this morning, which is an organization that is sweeping the UK, and the world, which focuses on a godless community which comes together and advocates positivity, outreach, and embracing life! We took the tube up to Bethnal Green and made our way to a large assembly hall where we sang, listened to a poetry reading, and heard two speakers who focused the meeting on the importance of teamwork in society. They spoke about how as "animals" we need and crave social interaction and teamwork in order to thrive, but how our cultural conditioning combats this with the desire to "look out for #1." One of the speakers spoke about the psychology of fiances versus the psychology of social interaction. It was truly a fascinating talk and, regardless of your stance on God, the meeting was really worthwhile! And get this, there was a band and a choir and all 300 people were singing their lungs out to Chumbawamba's Tubthumping, Desiree's Gotta Be, and Survivor's Eye of the Tiger. Hilarious and totally awesome. 

     I'm pretty jazzed I went. It was definitely different than anything I've ever been to before and I actually really enjoy their philosophy about community. It was positive and upbeat and a really uplifting way to start my Sunday. 

    Cheers to trying new things!