Once upon a time, three weeks was the longest you’d have to wait to head over to Conway Hall for the next assembly. This time, it has been seventeen months. But we’re back and burdened with glorious purpose!
For this assembly we’re coming together to celebrate our LGBTQ+ community because even though London’s parade has been cancelled, we’re still going to celebrate Pride. Not only are we coming back after a long time away, but our main speaker, Rosie Wilby, is also returning after having last spoken at Sunday Assembly London back in 2015.
An award-winning LGBTQ+ comedian, Rosie will share some of the insights she has gained while writing her new book “The Breakup Monologues”, published by Bloomsbury in May. She believes that breakups, painful as they are, can sometimes be harnessed as an opportunity for learning and growth, a catalyst for new adventures and a helpful nudge towards making better future partner choices. Breakups can perhaps even help us to stay together in the long run.
Sanderson Jones is on hosting duty and, as always, there will be epic sing-alongs with the Sunday Assembly London band and choir, poetry, and a talk from Chloe Kazantzis, a member of our community who is “Trying Her Best”.
Important safety stuff
To make everybody feel comfortable, Conway Hall has a new filtered ventilation system as well as several hand sanitising stations in the building for everyone to use. The toilets have been updated with automatic taps and soap dispensers to reduce touch points.
Before coming to our event, we recommend that you do everything you can to make sure that you personally are not infectious. You can do this by getting vaccinated, taking a lateral flow test or registering that you are immune (because of a previous infection)
The staff at Conway Hall will wear face masks, and they also encourage anyone who enters the building to wear one, but this will not be a requirement for entry. We want everyone to feel comfortable with their choice to wear one or not. Please be respectful of the choices made by other people around you.
Some members of our community feel completely relaxed about physical contact, while others do not. Please ask for permission before making any kind of physical contact with others. This is just a good rule for life! But it’s especially important as we return to post-pandemic gatherings of humans.
In addition to supporting consent, we will also try to space out the chairs on the ground floor as much as possible to aid in social distancing. And we will distribute colour-coded name tags so you can let everyone see on your tag what level of contact you’d like: red, yellow, and green.
Lastly, the reason we are able to return to in-person assemblies is because the government has allowed the practice of group singing indoors to resume. We want you to sing with us! But we understand if that makes some people feel unsafe. Please only sing if you want to, and do not feel that you are under any pressure to join in.
