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Since the democratic uprising of the Arab Spring in 2011 Syria has been ravaged by civil war. The unrest has allowed fundamentalist groups like the Islamic State rise and spread terror across the region. Millions of families have been displaced to refugee camps across the region.

Earlier this year the photo of young Alan Kurdi's death rocked the world. That led to an outpouring of compassion and within our own community more and more members started asking me if the BC Humanist Association could help sponsor a refugee family to come to Vancouver.

While I can't promise anything yet, we've had a number of significant pledges and we have a chance to bring a family to Canada.

Editor's note: This article is specific to religion in the British education system. For information about the state of religion in British Columbia's education system, see our Secular Schools campaign.

By Tariq Modood, University of Bristol

British society is in serious need of higher levels of religious literacy. The potential for misunderstanding, stereotyping and oversimplification based on ignorance is huge – and schools have a big part to play in putting this right.

Religion has dramatically changed in Britain. Fewer people profess Christianity, more profess a post-Christian spirituality, humanism or atheism, while Muslim, Sikh, Hindu and Jewish communities assert themselves in public and seek to play a role in shaping policies.

By Nancy T Ammerman, Boston University

Religion is grabbing some of the biggest headlines in the current US presidential campaign.

We’ve heard a lot about what candidates like Donald Trump think about other people’s religious beliefs.

But what about the candidates' own beliefs and religious affiliations – and how those will affect their policy positions?

Unfortunately circumstances prevented our scheduled speaker from the Metro Vancouver Alliance from speaking with us on Sunday. It did however give me the opportunity to provide a more comprehensive update on what we've been up to as an organization over the past few months.

The most newsworthy update was the BC Supreme Court ruling in favour of the proposed law school at Trinity Western University. There's more information in this post and I'll update you as we learn more.

Finally, just today the Ontario-led provincial consultation on assisted dying released its final report. The expert group's recommendations echo much of what we said in our submission. Read more.

PS Today is the last day to buy tickets for the Winter Solstice Dinner. Reserve yours now.

A new report on physician assisted dying from a provincial and territorial governments expert group echos calls the BC Humanist Association and others made earlier this year.

The report sets out a clear blueprint for how federal and provincial governments can implement last February's Supreme Court of Canada ruling that granted Canadians the right to choose a physician-assisted death.

For the past two years I lived in the UK. I met some amazing people there and saw firsthand what a professional Humanist organization, like the British Humanist Association with its 40 000 supporters, can accomplish. But I am glad to be back home in Vancouver and I have been heartened by the warm welcome BCHA members have given me since I returned as your executive director in August. Thank you so much for your support.

Those experiences and your backing have redoubled my determination to make the British Columbia Humanist Association the leading voice for secular and progressive values in Canada. That’s why I’ve been working hard with the board and our volunteers to make that vision a reality.

The BC Supreme Court has overturned the Law Society of BC's decision to deny accreditation to a proposed law school at Trinity Western University, an evangelical private university. The Court ruled yesterday that the Law Society made procedural errors in making its final decision.

Thanks to so many BC Humanist Association members and supporters, we donated well over a hundred items of warm clothing for people in need.

This past Sunday, December 6, 2015, 32 of us were engaged and interested to hear from John Ince, speaking on the political significance of sexuality and the negative effects of erotophobia. Ince discussed how authoritarian structures are correlated with sexually repressive regimes. He theorizes that this is because hierarchical thinking requires a very rational mindset that is in direct conflict with feelings of sexuality.

We've occasionally posted video from one of our Sunday speakers on our YouTube channel. However, this is fairly time-consuming so instead we're going to try posting audio recordings for the next few weeks (when our speaker's consent). If this trial proves successful, we'll turn this series into a podcast in the new year. 

Have a listen to yesterday's speech by John Ince on the political significance of sexuality (note that this episode does contain some explicit content) and let me know what you think.

Through our weekly newsletter, we like to let you know about our upcoming events as well as a number of issues and campaigns that we think might be of interest to you. Let me know if you have any suggestions to include in future roundups. Email: [email protected]

And for the latest news items, be sure to like the BC Humanists on Facebook and follow @BCHumanist on Twitter.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions which appear in this roundup are not necessarily shared by all or even most of the members and board of the BC Humanist Association.