Our latest newsletter is now available, with info on the appeal for a Humanist Thought for the Day on Radio 4, Andrew Copson’s upcoming visit to our June meeting, evidence-based ethics, community cohesion and our financial report. [Download SH News May 2007 (295 KB)](http://www.suffolkhumanists.org.uk/files/1/0705SH News.pdf)

E-mail: mail@suffolkhumanists.org.uk Event description: ICR has short term licences that enable it to provide opportunities for local groups and individuals to learn about broadcasting. They showcase local talent at a variety of events. We’ve been on ICR in previous years! Further info: http://www.icrfm.co.uk/homepage.htm

E-mail: mail@suffolkhumanists.org.uk Event description: Veronica Broomes is the guest speaker at the UN Association’s AGM at The Friends’ Meeting House, 39 Fonnereau Road, Ipswich. Veronica Broomes works as a freelance consultant on sustainability and environmental issues. With a background in agricultural biotechnology research and as an environmental impact assessment practitioner, Veronica has been a sound grasp of the importance of sustainable development and implications of climate change on lives and livelihoods.

We’ve received the following email from the BHA: The Commission on Integration and Cohesion (COIC) was set up by the Government to make recommendations as to how ‘local areas can make the most of diversity while being able to respond to the tensions it may cause’. They are now very close to making their final report and have asked members of the public to inform their last minute deliberations by contributing their own answers to the question, ‘If you were in charge for a day, what would you do to help people from different backgrounds in your neighbourhood get on better?

Hundreds of thousands of people have rallied in Istanbul in support of secularism in Turkey, amid a row over a vote for the country’s next president. BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Huge rally for Turkish secularism. Many see the nomination of foreign minister Abdullah Gul as a threat to the strict separation of religion and politics since Turkey became a republic in 1923, suspecting that he has an Islamist agenda and would be in a position to veto all laws and appoint key establishment figures.

If you’re a Radio 4 listener, you’ll know that the debate about including atheist/humanist thoughts for the day in the Today programme has been hotting up. We’ve had an email from Naomi Phillips, Public Affairs Officer at The British Humanist Association, as follows: We seem to be getting somewhere with our campaign to have humanist voices included on Radio 4’s ‘Thought for the Day’. Last week both BHA member Lord Harrison of Chester and Jonathan Bartley of Ekklesia (the Christian think tank with which the BHA has worked on issues like creationism), himself a contributor to Thought for The Day, made the case on the Today programme for including humanist contributors.

At this year’s Cambridge Science Festival, Re:Design was a dramatisation of the correspondence between Charles Darwin and the Harvard Professor of Botany, Asa Gray. You will need broadband and Flash, Windows Media or Quicktime player to see the video extract. Terry Molloy, who plays Darwin, is my brother-in-law!  Tags: Darwin, Theatre, Cambridge

Every MP in the country is to receive a copy of Richard Dawkins’ latest book The God Delusion following a grassroots effort by humanists who want to challenge state privileges given to religious groups. The campaign, organised through the community action website, Pledgebank, is an attempt to demonstrate how widespread secular and atheist views are in this country. It comes in response to Prof Dawkins’s rallying cry in the book for atheists to be more vocal.

E-mail: mail@suffolkhumanists.org.uk Event description: Opinions on the Sea of Faith vary widely in Humanist and Secularist circles. For an explanation of what they’re about, see their website. They’re concerned with what will replace institutional religion as interest in it declines. The SoF Roadshow will be at the Quaker Meeting House, 39 Fonnereau Road, Ipswich, IP1 3JH. The cost is 8, including a vegetarian lunch, tea and coffee. Speakers are Don Cupitt, fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and Stephen Mitchell, a Suffolk Parish Priest and founder member of SoF.

Here’s the latest Suffolk Humanist News, with apologies for lateness – our editor may have got herself hospitalised, but she’s back on the mend now. This edition includes information on our upcoming AGM, our meeting with Peter Tatchell in Colchester last month, and upcoming events. Download SH News April 2007 (93 KB PDF)