A Solstice for the Rest of Us

When the Chapel Hill, North Carolina, chapter of Sunday Assembly gathered on the morning of Dec. 12, it looked like almost any other church's holiday service: There was a congregation and music, and parents quietly reminding their young children of the order of events and rituals in which they were about to partake. What was conspicuously absent from the Sunday Assembly Solstice Celebration 2021: any mention of God. It was a secular solstice for the rest of us, a religion-free, winter holiday gathering of people who, according to their motto, want to "Live Better. Help Often. Wonder More."