In 2013 the comedians Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans found the Sunday Assembly in London: a godless congregation that sings, hears talks, and keeps the forms of church without doctrine, under the motto live better, help often, wonder more. Assemblies spread to dozens of cities, testing whether humanism can hold the communal life the manifestos describe.
Tagged: Secular Humanism
The Event
- Date
- 2013 (exact)
- Era
- The Congregational Experiment; Standard periodization of secular humanist history
- Location
- London; today London, England
- Traditions
- Secular Humanism
- Streams
- Secular Humanism
- Key figures
- Sanderson Jones, Pippa Evans
Primary Sources
- The Sunday Assembly's founding documents and charter, London, 2013.
Secondary Sources
- Kurtz, Paul, ed. Humanist Manifestos I and II. Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1973.
- Lamont, Corliss. The Philosophy of Humanism. New York: Humanist Press, eighth edition, 1997.
- Walter, Nicolas. Humanism: What's in the Word. London: Rationalist Press Association, 1997.
Provenance: HIST-1398; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-30.
Related on This Site
Art Tradition
Non-Theistic and Secular
Art without transcendence: humanist meaning-making, museums as secular temples, and protest art.
History Event
Humanist Manifesto II
1973
History Event
Julian Huxley takes the helm of UNESCO
1946
History Event
Kurtz founds the Council for Secular Humanism
1980
History Event
Lamont's The Philosophy of Humanism
1949
History Event
The British Humanist Association is founded
1967
History Event
The International Humanist and Ethical Union is founded
1952
History Event
Torcaso v. Watkins names secular humanism in law
1961