Sunday Assembly Portland

Come explore the cosmos and learn how looking at the universe can help us examine and
thrive in our everyday lives.

Our August assembly will focus on the cosmos with speaker Dr. Todd Duncan, Director of the
Science Integration Institute and instructor at Pacific University and Portland Community
College. He will present a talk titled “The Value of a Cosmic Perspective”. According to
Duncan, “Science is widely valued for its role in creating the technology that shapes our world
today, but it can also teach us something that transcends technical, intellectual knowledge”. He
hopes that by providing insights that shock us out of our limited points of view, science can
transform our experience and our awareness of who we are and what we are capable of
achieving. The talk will explore this theme, with examples from astronomy, to frame a
discussion of how these ideas can be used to help solve everyday problems. 

Duncan is a cosmologist whose work is guided by the theme of better understanding how our
immediate human experiences connect to a cosmic perspective that gives them meaning. He
combines a research background in physics and astronomy with experience teaching science
concepts to a wide range of audiences. Duncan received his undergraduate degree in physics
from the University of Illinois, an M. Phil. from Cambridge University as a Churchill Scholar,
and a doctorate in astrophysics from the University of Chicago where he was a National Science
Foundation and McCormick Fellow. In 1998, he founded the non-profit Science Integration
Institute as a forum for exploring what it means to be human in the universe as understood by
modern science. He also is the author of Glimpses of Wonder and An Ordinary World: The Role
of Science in Your Search for Personal Meaning and coauthor of Your Cosmic Context: An
Introduction to Modern Cosmology.

How to help Sunday Assembly each time you go grocery shopping:
Fred Meyer is donating $2.5 million per year to non-profits in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington, based on where their customers tell them to give. Here’s how the program works:

Sign up for the Community Rewards program by linking your Fred Meyer Rewards Card to Sunday Assembly at www.fredmeyer.com/communityrewards. You can search for us by our name - Sunday Assembly - or by our non-profit number 80933.
Once you register your Rewards Card and link it to our non-profit number 80933 you will help Sunday Assembly earn a donation each time you shop.
You will still earn your Rewards Points, Fuel Points and Rebates just like always.
If you need a Rewards Card, they are available at the Customer Service desk of any Fred Meyer Store.
If you are having problems linking your card you can contact the Community Rewards help center at 1-866-518-2686.
For more information please visit www.fredmeyer.com/communityrewards or email Ann Moses at SATeamVounteer@gmail.com

Located just on the far side of the Clackamas River off HWY 99E/ McLoughlin Boulevard, Clackamette Park celebrates the union of the Clackamas and Willamette Rivers just within the nearby town of Oregon City (~25 min drive from downtown PDX). 

If the weather is cool and pleasant we’ll walk a three mile loop featuring two Clackamas River bridges, three parks and the infamous historic “Pow Wow Tree” in the joining neighborhood. Most of this walk will be on well-groomed wide trails in the wild greenspace. The adjacent area is undergoing development into a posh cove-side community, so currently features an interesting array of large construction machines. This area has haunting industrial remnants as well as the wild natural beauty inherent in these two rivers. View busy and deadly High Rocks Park from the pedestrian bridge. 

If the weather is hot we will forgo heat exhaustion in favor of a nice swim instead in man-made Clackamette Cove, just up the frontage road from the Clackamette Park entrance. These still lagoon waters are neither advertised nor signed and therefore retain obscurity despite being arguably the best warm swimming hole in the greater Portland area. Try it before it gets developed and discovered by the masses. Bring swimsuit, towel, water, snacks, walking shoes, and if swimming definitely water shoes/flip flops, as the lake also has an evident industrial past. All swimming skill levels are welcome, but there is no official life guard. Bring a floaty/water wings or challenge yourself to conquer the triathlon buoys scattered around the lake. 

Friendly dogs and families are welcome. Contact Organizer Dr. Mindy Curry for more information. Meet/park near the restrooms located straight in towards the boat ramp and to the left from the Clackamette Park entrance. From 99E cross the bridge across the Clackamas River into Oregon City, then take a right on the first street just past McDonalds across from the strip mall. Take the first right, then turn left into Clackamette Park.