61% of boys and 70% of girls aged over 17 reported not receiving any information at school about personal relationships (Youth Parliament survey, 2007)

72% of the public are concerned that the Academies Bill could lead to taxpayers’ money being used to promote religion.

Only 4% of Catholics think that artificial contraception is wrong.

Only 10% think the religious meaning of Christmas is most important

Humanist weddings are now more popular in Scotland than those conducted by the Catholic Church

65% of people say they are not religious (YouGov)

67% of parents do not support collective worship in schools (BBC poll)

Religious people are not more likely to participate in society than non-religious people

78% of people (82% of over 55s) think that religion should be a private matter and had no place in politics (YouGov-CambridgeUniversity)

Religious people are not more likely to participate in society than non-religious people. (The Citizenship Survey)

Humanist

National News

BHA

NSS

Schools

Welcome to West Sussex Humanists

Humanism is the view that we can make sense of the world using reason, experience and shared human values, and live good lives without religious or superstitious beliefs.

We represent the interests of the non-religious residents of West Sussex in local government, support Human Rights, and work towards equality and social cohesion.

West Sussex Humanists is an umbrella organisation of local affiliated groups that meet regularly throughout West Sussex (see main menu above for your local group).

Our next meetings

Councillors pray to God for guidance

In a recent survey, West Sussex Humanists found that 6 out of the 16 councils in West Sussex still hold prayers before council meetings. The table below shows the results.

Council	Holds prayers?	Comments
Adur DC	No
Arun DC	Yes	When chair asks for them
Arundel TC	No
Bognor Regis TC	Yes	At full council meetings
Chichester DC	No
Crawley BC	No
East Grinstead TC	No
Haywards Heath TC	Yes
Horsham DC	Yes	Councillors can wait outside during prayers
Littlehampton TC	No?	May be introduced at the Annual Council
Midhurst TC	No
Mid Sussex DC	Yes
Petworth TC	?	Has not replied to emails
Selsey TC	No
West Sussex CC	No
Worthing BC	Yes

Emails are being sent to councils still holding prayers, advising them of new Equalities law due to be implemented later this year.

The National Secular Society took one council to the High Court on 2nd December 2011. We are awaiting the verdict, likely to affect all councils.

The Mid Sussex Times and West County Times have printed these articles.

CouncilPrayersMidSussexTimesAugust2011150

CounclPrayersWestCountyTimesSeptember2011

Should there be prayers at council meetings?

	Yes
	No

NUT talk at Chichester Humanists 23rd January 2012

ChichesterHumanistsTalkChrisMilesNUT23rdJanuary2012Debate

Chris Miles, primary school teacher, NUT representative and secretary of the Joint Consultative Committee, talked to a well attended meeting about religion in schools.

After a brief personal description of her long involvement in teaching and the NUT, Chris considered the introduction of collective worship in schools.

Read more... Add new comment

Population Matters talk at Chichester Humanists 19th December 2011

ChichesterHumanistsTalk19thDecember2011EricRimmerHughRussellPopulationMattersDebate

Eric and Hugh gave a fascinating talk about impact of population growth. Read a summary of a similar talk they gave to The Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution recently.

Add new comment

Abortion Rights talk 21st November 2011

ChichesterHumanistsTalk21stNovember2011KateSmurthwaiteAbortionRightsUKdebate

Kate Smurthwaite began by stating her position that a woman's body is hers alone and she has responsibility for it. A foetus is part of her body.

She went on to explain the two methods of abortion: drugs between 9 and 12 weeks, surgical between 12 and 24 weeks.

Read more... Add new comment

Faith vs Secularism Conference at Worth Abbey October 2011

Around 45 people attended this conference, which was jointly sponsored by South East England Faiths Forum (SEEFF) and Faiths in Sussex (FiS), and organised by Horsham InterFaith.

Henry Smith, MP for Crawley, gave the first talk. In his work as an MP, he enjoys meeting people from diverse backgrounds and has found that they share many desires for a better society. Educated in Philosophy, he believes in God but respects the rights of all people to hold religious or non-religious beliefs.

Read more... Add new comment

Chichester Humanists talk 19th September: Dignity in Dying

ChichesterHumanistsTalk19thSeptember2011JohnKappDignityInDyingDebate
This talk attracted a number of new people to our growing group.

John Kapp began with a moving description of the death of his first wife from cancer. She died peacefully at home and had a "good death" as John explained.

On several occasions, John mentioned our reluctance to talk about death and palliative care in particular, even amongst health professionals and care staff. Having planned for his own death, John says that he feels more alive than ever.

Read more... Add new comment

Chichester Humanists talk 15th August: Being Gay in the UK

ChichesterHumanistsTalk15thAugust2011PeterCornwellReduced

Peter Cornwell of Worthing Pride gave us a well presented and interesting talk about the problems faced by the Gay and Lesbian community in the UK.

His approach was to outline the main historical changes to UK law. Queen Victoria was partlly responsible for the first anti-homosexual Act in 1885; this only applied to men, because she didn't think lesbianism was possible. A few years later, Oscar Wilde was put on trial.

Read more... Add new comment

Southwater Oasis Free School

This evening, a group of Horsham Humanists attended the public consultation for the proposed new free school Southwater Oasis Secondary.

The room was packed. After a presentation from HCT and Oasis, questions and comments were invited. Every one of them was critical. What a grubbing the two speakers got.

I managed to ask the following question. "Why are you proposing a Christian school rather than a fully inclusive community school, especially when less than 5% of people attend church monthly? Only 9% of Head teachers want more faith schools. 64% of the public don’t want any state-funded religious schools because they discriminate against a large proportion of children. For example, 65% of teenagers are non-religious, and others have different religious beliefs. How can they feel included in a school that prioritises Christian beliefs?"

Read more... Add new comment

Horsham Amnesty Talk 5th December 2011

HorshamHumanists5thDecemberJackieFryAmnestyBanner

Jackie Fry gave a most interesting talk about Amnesty International and the local Horsham Group. Read more details at www.HorshamHumanists.net

Add new comment

Chichester Humanists talk 17th October: Amnesty

ChichesterHumanistsTalk17thOctobert2011KathShakespeareAmnestyBanner

Kath began by giving a brief history of Amnesty, which was started in 1961 by lawyer Peter Benson after he launched an appeal for amnesty for two Poruguese students who were imprisoned for raising a toast for freedom.

Founded on universal human rights, Amnesty uses peaceful methods (such as letter writing) to free prisoners of conscience and improve their conditions. They also fight for human rights throughout the world and have 2.8 million members in 150 countries.

Read more... Add new comment

Horsham Humanists debate The Foundations of Humanism

Horsham Humanists discussed the foundations of Humanism at their new venue The Rising Sun. More details at www.HorshamHumanists.net

Add new comment

Secular Europe March 2011

West Sussex Humanists were proud to attend the Secular Europe march in London on Saturday.

SecularEuropeMarch2011

Distinguished speakers from across Europe gave impassioned speeches about the urgent need for secularism.

Andrew Copson of the BHA said ‘Secularism guarantees our freedom of conscience and our freedom of belief, humanist and religious alike. But all over Europe there are religious groups of all religions lobbying not just for the right to pursue their own vision of the good life as they see fit, which, if we do it without harming others is a freedom we all should enjoy, but working hard to impose their own values on us all.’