An Assembly of Happiness: building a values-based Canberra community

Posted on 21 May, 2014

On Sunday I discovered a movement that has been gathering momentum in Canberra for the last six months. It is called Sunday Assembly Canberra – and before the word ‘church’ pops into your head and you tune out – STOP! Sunday Assembly is many things; but a church or religious activity is not one of them.

A couple of years ago, UK comedians Pippa Evans and Sanderson Jones were chatting about the positive things that a church provides, like: songs, talks and community. They started throwing around the idea of a church without the religion, a values-based community (rather than a faith-based one) that takes the positive elements of the church such as like altruism and community, without the requirement of faith or belief. In January 2013 they held the first Sunday Assembly in London and this has now grown to 28 Assemblies across the globe.

Canberra’s Assembly co-founders Richie Merzian and Sonya Tirtajaya are aiming to bridge a gap for people who would like to have a better sense of community. The Assembly and other social events focus on living a meaningful and enriching life, celebration not solemnity, and on connecting not cliquing.  There are now over 150 Canberrans who are committed to making the most of their lives, living with intention and following the motto:

‘Living Better, Wondering More and Helping Often’

I was interested to see the type of people that this movement attracted, and guess what? They were all types of people! People with young children, teenagers, young people, couples, people attending alone, middle aged people, older people – a whole cross section of the ACT community.

Sunday Assembly service follows a familiar format with a twist. The songs are pop songs, the readings are from modern texts and the talks are from really interesting guest speakers.  This is followed by a moment of reflection and an address that sums up the theme of the day and provides you with a message to ponder.

May’s theme was happiness, something that feels like it should be simple yet can be extremely complex to achieve.

The reading was ‘The Utopia Complex’ an extract from Hugh Mackay’s The Good Life. It set out the ridiculously unobtainable level of perfection that we are pushed to constantly seek – live in the perfect home, drive the perfect car, have the perfect job, be and have the perfect partner and have perfect children – and yet we are conditioned to believe that we will be happy once we get them.

This was followed by ANU Academic and clinical psychologist Randolph Sparks speaking about the psychology of happiness – how we can each define what makes us happy and some tips on how to sustain it.  Randolf Sparks is a knowledgeable and enthusiastic speaker who condensed a thousand self-help books and formal reports and studies into a really simple acronym – PERMA: Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, Accomplishment.

Local musicians The Cashews were fantastic (as they were loud enough to drown out my singing) as we sung along to Walking on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves, Three Little Birds by Bob Marley and Don’t Worry, Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin. I challenge you to sing along to any of those songs and see if you can keep the smile off your face…it’s impossible!

My own religious beliefs have been influenced by my Catholic upbringing, however, as I have matured I have found my values and beliefs have not always aligned with those of the Church; something I don’t think is unique to me.  Personally, tt feels hypocritical – for me to attend a church service when there are so many aspects that I fundamentally don’t agree with.

Some of the things I miss about not going to church are the singing, the feeling of community and commonality with others and the Gospel readings (or the explanations of the readings because sometimes it’s really hard to work out what they are getting at).  I got all these things on Sunday and left feeling recharged, energised and confident I could take the positive attitude into the rest of the week.

Sunday Assembly is usually held on the third Sunday of each month and centres on a theme such as happiness, community, purpose etc. There are also group activities that are open to everyone to attend such as the Better More Often Choir, How to Live Better Book Club (enriching life through fiction), Slow Food Sunday Cooking Club (traditional methods – incredible results), Values Discussion Group (exploring how to live a meaningful life without necessarily having a faith to guide it), the Wonder Club (taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary) and social activities such as ten pin bowling and BBQ brunch at the National Arboretum.

If you are looking to try something new, meet new people, learn something new and celebrate simply being alive I will see you at June’s Sunday Assembly on 22 June 2014!

the essentials

What: Sunday Assembly Canberra
When: Third Sunday of each month
Where: Various.
How much: Free
Web: www.canberra.sundayassembly.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/SundayAssemblyCanberra
Twitter: @CanberraSA