Word about the monthly LSH gatherings continues to spread, enabling us to welcome five new faces to Wednesday night’s meeting and to what turned out to be one of the most insightful and vigorous meetings so far.

Retired TV producer / journalist, (& LSH member) Ken Hayes, presented a succinct précis of ‘The Case for Secularism’ made in a pamphlet of the same name from BHA Philosopher’s Group.

Acknowledging that getting free-thinking Humanists to agree on anything is akin to herding cats Ken coaxed his audience as they discussed their own approaches to achieving recognition for humanism and secularism in public and private life and how best to make progress towards achieving the shared aim of a secular state. Everyone offered widely differing opinions!

Encouraged by Ken, a robust exchange of views were shared during a healthy debate where everyone acknowledged the opposing opinions of others and supported their right to express them.

We agreed on the necessity to separate state from religion to achieve a more peaceful, fair & respect-fully coexisting society but had different views on the language used to desc-ribe ourselves and our views; from passive & coercive to assertive & indignant.

An extremely important new ritual was instigated after this meeting when eight members rounded off the evening in the pub. There we continued a more relaxed discussion over mainly soft drinks (as most were driving).

Hopefully this will continue to be a new but optional feature of meetings in the future.

For the statisticians among you this (June) meeting was the first time women have outnumbered men (by one) and saw a spread across the age range of over 50 years so we really are appealing across the board and across Lancashire.

Rachel Coupe