Humanists UK celebrates landmark year at its President’s Reception

Humanists UK welcomed guests to its annual President’s Reception last night, to celebrate a year of significant policy victories and mark the first six months of Janet Ellis’s presidency.

The event, which traditionally coincides with World Humanist Day celebrations, brought together a wide cross-section of the humanist movement, including MPs and peers, Humanists UK patrons and vice presidents, journalists, producers, leading civil servants, lawyers, academics, and leaders from across the wider third sector.

Opening the evening, Humanists UK Chief Executive Andrew Copson welcomed attendees and paid tribute to the movement’s collective achievements over the past twelve months:

‘Looking back over the past year, we’ve had some landmark victories.

After decades of relentless campaigning, abortion has finally been decriminalised for women in England and Wales. It is a monumental victory that drags our laws firmly into the 21st century – and it is a triumph that simply would not have happened without the sustained, gritty effort of our policy team and the unwavering support of Humanists UK members.

After more than a decade of us exposing the existence of illegal faith schools, the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act has finally given Ofsted the real teeth it needs to shut them down. Alongside that, two landmark reviews on Religious Education in England and Northern Ireland could mean that humanism is now closer than ever to its rightful, equal place in every classroom.

Of course, it hasn’t all been straightforward. The Assisted Dying Bill was timed out in the Lords. Crucially, it wasn’t defeated by a democratic vote, but by a cynical, deliberate filibuster. It was a painful, frustrating setback for the thousands of terminally ill people who deserve dignity. But we are not done. The Parliament Act exists precisely for situations like this. And I am delighted to say that our pressure has already borne fruit – the Bill has officially been reintroduced into Parliament by Lauren Edwards MP, and we will be pushing it forward with everything we have.

Meanwhile, our services continue to thrive. Faith to Faithless is changing lives every day, reaching hundreds of people who are leaving high-control religious groups, and picking up three major awards along the way. Understanding Humanism has just turned ten, with our school speakers having now reached an amazing half a million pupils.

We also celebrate two major leaps forward in pastoral care: the historical appointment of Dr Neil Weddell as the very first humanist pastoral carer in the British Armed Forces, and Pippa Swan’s appointment as the first paid pastoral carer at the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust.’’

Andrew also paid tribute to Janet’s first six months as President of Humanists UK:

‘There is so much one could say about Janet. She is a celebrated broadcaster, an accomplished author, a brilliant actor, and, as we’re all learning, a one-woman quote machine. More recently, she has taken on the mantle of agony aunt for New Humanist – a role that perfectly embodies her characteristic warmth, her sharp wit, and her boundless eloquence. She has stepped into the presidency with that exact same spirit.’

In her speech, Janet challenged common misconceptions about the non-religious, celebrated the depth of human emotion, and praised the campaign work of Humanists UK. She said:

‘One of the strangest and quite persistent ideas [about humanism] is that the embrace and affirmation of the notion of only this one life removes colour and that it is somehow joyless.

That all the major emotions – swelling feelings of joy or love or fear or grief, all the appetites – good and bad – are somehow flattened if they’re not instructed. And by extension this approach supposes that language that could vaguely be described as spiritual can no longer apply. ‘If everything has to be explained’, they say, ‘What room does that leave for the moving and inexplicable?’

The magic powerful rush at the sight of something magnificent. The instant critical depths of fear or greed or anger. The tears you shed at birth or death or a thousand points in between. They serve no practical purpose. ‘And how do you interpret them?’, they ask, ‘if they apply to the mysteries of life, of living’. All that language must surely only describe the indescribable and therefore is beyond the linguistic power of reasoning. Who’s in charge?

We are. Miraculous, fragile, stubborn us. Each one of us the product of an encounter hopefully conceived in lust and joy but even if not, here we are, ridiculously fashioned and open to questioning everything.

We humanists don’t compose music to give us points on that heaven directed scale. We don’t depict the world or introduce the chaos of imagination to get further ahead on a vague promise of an unknowable future. We don’t write poetry to top any charts. We don’t write for that purpose full stop, any more than we smile at dogs or run fast or enjoy a meal or trip over a paving stone to be seen and rated by the unseen.

This is not to dismiss any religion but to stress that humanists think no one has the upper hand when it comes to our emotions, emotional reactions or the simple business of living.

Because this determination to look carefully at the world, to analyse it where possible and celebrate and explore it too goes alongside our humanist deep, uniting belief in fairness. No one is denied the feelings we’re all capable of, whatever their creed. And by extension no one should be denied their proper place in society, to learn, marry, die and live in the full knowledge that society sees and supports them. And their feelings are never rated by anything, any doctrine or law that’s restrictive, judgemental, or harmful.

We don’t think that anyone needs permission to feel anything or to interpret the way we’re made in whatever discipline they choose. Paint it, compose it, act it, eat it, share it – all good.

In this respect, humanism is a superpower.’