Sunday Assembly Glasgow Gathering 2025

Sunday Assemblers from around the world met in Glasgow to create connections, share learning, build their assemblies and to live better, help often and wonder more together.

The annual international meet-up is one of the key events in the Sunday Assembly calendar. Following 2024’s excellent event in Venice, California (see report here), the focus moved to Glasgow in Scotland for our 2025 conference.

Sunday Assembly Glasgow is one of the more recent start-ups, commencing operations in April 2022. The whole SA world was delighted when the Glasgow team led by Michelle Hamlet and Liz Tierney stepped up with the offer of hosting this year’s event. We alternate between both sides of the Atlantic, so it was UK/Europe’s turn this time.

Events were centred around The Pyramid, a dramatic venue built as a church in the city’s Anderston area in the 1960s and now used as a community centre. (This trajectory mirrors the rise of the Sunday Assembly movement, of course.) Social events were focused on the buzzing Byres Road area in Glasgow’s West End, and it was here that the participants gathered at the famous Curler’s Rest pub to meet up on the first evening. Old friends were reunited, new friends were made, food and drink (including a fine version of the famous haggis) were consumed.

Proceedings were off to an energetic start on the Friday morning as the international ‘band of all the talents’ led us in not one but two songs (of course!) both with strong Scottish roots, I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) by The Proclaimers and Perfect by Fairground Attraction. Musicians and singers from six different assemblies provided a total of 15 songs to sing along with through the event, with some lively performances ranging from the reflective (Thank U by Alanis Morissette) to the rocking (Proud Mary, Rockin’ All Over The World). We were thrilled to have Amy (SA Brighton) and Julie (Dundee) leading the singing.

The opening keynote was by Professor Sir John Curtice, polling expert and a regular pundit on BBC News broadcasts. He talked about the The Politics of Moral Choices and how these have become even more political in recent years. There are also differences between UK/Europe and the USA. Sir John showed how the traditional left/right political divides were being challenged by a separation of views on economics, with rising support for traditional values (right) alongside large public spending (left). While many issues like abortion are settled in Europe, this is much less the case in the USA. Sir John mentioned that the rise of Sunday Assembly and similar movements mirrored the increasing desire for community alongside declining (in the UK) church attendance.

We had a super programme of workshops through the event, with a mix of general interest topics and those aimed at SA organisers. Here’s a brief listing(click on the titles for more information):

Donald Reid: What’s this PalCafe all about?

Matt Lockwood: Never Going Back Again

Stephen Paul: Arrive, Play, Connect

Mark McKergow: Helping New Chapters to Start and Thrive

Ashley Silfra: Magical Facilitation

David Hartley: Moving On Up

Janneke Evans: Mindfulness and Kindness Meditation

Anj Cairns: Dancetastic - music and movement for big grown up kids

Brandy Wade and Louis Kiphen: Rooted in Meaning - Rituals for Secular Communities

Alastair Lichten: Making Sunday Assemblies Family Friendly

Jess Abrams: The Power of Community Music

Dr. Jehan S Al-Azzawi: Educating for Peace

On the Friday night many of us went to Sloan’s Ceilidh, a regular chance for locals and visitors alike to meet, dance, spin, drink (!) and enjoy some traditional Scottish entertainment. It was a memorable night, as these picture show.

Saturday’s keynote saw Mike Stevenson give a talk called Leading with Imagination in a World Ready for Renewal. Mike stressed the importance of offering people a better future and offered some fascinating examples of where things are already being transformed for the better. We continued with workshops, and Stephen Paul led a game of Zombie Penguin at lunchtime (a kind of energetic non-musical chairs). The lunches were excellent by the way, locally sourced and mostly vegan.

Saturday evening saw the arrival of Restaurant Roulette, where participants chose a restaurant to go to with other (as yet unknown) assemblers. It’s a great way to help people meet each other and try out a good mixture of Glasgow’s eateries with a little structure to help all be involved. As you can see below, it was a colourful, sociable and satisfying experience.

On Sunday morning what else could we do but have a Sunday Assembly. We had more songs, poems about Scotland, and Claire McNicol spoke about storytelling with Eye to Eye, Mind to Mind and Heart to Heart. The assembly closed with the singing of Wonderwall, perhaps a tribute to the Wonderwall of appreciation and connection which was created through the event.

After the assembly we went off in many directions. There were three walks to different sites of interest (the Transport Museum, Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art which all attracted interest.

We finally departed looking forward to the 2026 international SA gathering which will be held in Atlanta, Georgia. Dates are being confirmed but it may be in July. And of course as a subscriber to SA News you’ll be among the first to know. Sunday Assembly Mascot SAM was photographed on their way to Atlanta, so they will definitely be there to welcome all who welcome all next time.

Huge thanks to Michelle Hamlet, Liz Tierney and the team at SA Glasgow for organising such a packed and interesting time for us.