This cartoon has been added to the latest cartoons section of CartoonChurch.com and is available for subscribers to republish in church magazines etc subject to the usual conditions. Bloggers can republish this one freely on personal blogs - the code is below.
First of all, apologies for the fact that this is the first cartoon for subscribers in ages. I am sorry about this unsatisfactory state of affairs. I will be making some announcements that relate to it before too long.
Secondly, I have noticed that recently I have been getting links from people writing from both sides of some of the debates that I have been covering. This makes me happy, but probably means that I do not state my own convictions very clearly, as if I were to do so I would surely upset one side or the other and they would stop their linking forthwith. Sometimes though being unclear can be a good thing, as when everyone is shouting their opinions back and forth it sometimes helps to have someone in the middle shouting something nonsensical and confusing so that both sides have to pause briefly before resuming their shouting.
One site that has been pouring non-literal oil on troubled waters recently is Ekklesia. Yesterday they issued a report on the Christian Union debate explaining how both sites can come to an agreement without resorting to lawyers and shaking of fists. You can download the report here (PDF file, 92kb). I have seen some criticism on the forums today but to my mind this report is the best solution anyone has come up with.
Finally, as promised two or three paragraphs ago: the code to paste this cartoon into your blog:
<img src="http://www.weblogcartoons.com/cb/pharisees-cartoon.gif" alt="cartoon from www.weblogcartoons.com" />
<p>Cartoon by <a href="http://www.cartoonchurch.com/blog/">Dave Walker</a>. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at <a href="http://www.weblogcartoons.com/">We Blog Cartoons</a>.</p>
Posted by Dave at 3:15 pm on November 30, 2006 and filed under Cartoons, Anglican goings-on, Ecumenical matters, New CartoonChurch cartoons.
4 Comments
Sarah ordered some of my books and found they arrived from SCM-Canterbury Press the next day.
Incidentally - is it only me who likes to send greetings to people via their referrer statistics? I thought so. You would say if I was turning into a geek wouldn’t you?
Posted by Dave at 11:58 am on November 30, 2006 and filed under Cartooning, Books.
10 Comments
All being well our Oxford Street Christmas Lights campaign along with this cartoon will shortly feature in the ‘Metro‘ newspaper, available in London and (I think) other urban areas of the UK.
I don’t know whether it will be today or some other day - all I have had is an e-mail (last night) asking for permission to use the image and saying they will mention the campaign. If anyone can look in a copy of Metro today or in the next few days then I would be very appreciative.
I did not ever get a response from the Oxford Street Authorities.
Posted by Dave at 11:06 am on November 30, 2006 and filed under Cartoons, Environment, One-man campaigns.
3 Comments
The drawing illustrates the fact that people cannot often be subdivided into those who talk continual sense and those who talk continual rubbish. Life is more like B) than A), although I would be unwise to generalise.
I am often tempted to believe someones words on the basis that in the past they seem to have talked continual sense, and to ignore the pronouncements of a person on the basis that in the past they have talked continual utter nonsensical rubbish. But in fact there is a chance that this time they have got it wrong when they always used to get it right, or got it right when they always used to get it wrong.
Today I have been reading about the regulations that are planned to prohibit discrimination on the grounds of Sexual Orientation. Simon at Thinking Anglicans has some of the latest news reports and websites saying things. On the one hand some groups are saying that this will mean the end of civilisation as we know it and that what is needed is a massive Christian fightback. On the other hand Simon is saying that if the Northern Ireland regulations are anything to go by there will be widespread exemptions so worrying is not necessary.
I have to say that I find it difficult to take some of the people involved in this debate too seriously because of their track records and the fact that they have often spouted nonsense in the past. I drew this cartoon in order to convince myself that I should listen to the merits of what they say case by case.
I would be unwise to make any further comment as I have just cleaned the bathroom and my sense of judgement may have been affected by vapour from the cleaning products.
Posted by Dave at 11:45 am on November 29, 2006 and filed under Cartoons, Current events.
3 Comments
The Posada is, as far as I can gather, a Mexican celebration commemorating Mary and Joseph’s difficult journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem in search of ‘Posada’, a Spanish word for ’shelter’ or ‘inn’ (depending which web page you believe). Posada-related websites:
- Las Posadas
Webpage about the original Mexican celebration.
- The Church Army Posada page
The Church Army promote the concept of Posada using Mary and Joseph figures in the UK, though I don’t think they have a monopoly on the concept.
- Churches in Kenilworth
Page illustrating how one parish uses the Posada idea.
- Posada blog chain
Andii Bowsher, writer of the Nouslife blog, is organising a ‘Posada blog chain‘ whereby different blogs ‘host’ an image of Mary and Joseph for a day. He’s getting quite a good number of people signing up, but it looks like there’s room for more. (As an aside, I seem to get pop-ups on Andii’s site and I’m not sure why. Is it just me?)
Posted by Dave at 9:16 am on November 28, 2006 and filed under Ecumenical matters, Spirituality.
12 Comments
I was rather surprised to hear about the experiences of my friend Spike who is a Reader in the Church of England. A Reader, for those who have not come across the species before is a lay (not ordained) person who has been given training and can preach, lead services and often do things like take funerals, visiting etc. They work hard for no pay and without them the church would cease to function. (The website for Readers in the Church of England is here.)
Spike was asked to fill in a form for the CRB (Criminal Records Bureau), which just about everyone doing voluntary work these days has to do. He filled one in and sent it to the Diocese, who then lost it along with (he thinks) all the other CRB forms from Readers in the Diocese. He then procrasinated a bit doing the replacement form. This is not uncommon. I have some forms unfilled in which should have been done months or years ago. Eventually the deadline came but Spike’s form was too late.
This is the odd bit. Instead of being suspended from his post until his form was completed as might seem reasonable Spike has been given a permanent suspension from duties as a Reader within the parish he has served at for 10 years. If he now wants to continue his ministry as a Reader he must start from scratch in a new parish somewhere else.
All because of a form not being handed in on time. Unbelievable.
Posted by Dave at 8:59 am on November 27, 2006 and filed under Church, Anglican goings-on.
26 Comments
[Click on the image to see the contents of my sock drawer from a slightly closer vantage point]
Posted by Dave at 1:40 pm on November 26, 2006 and filed under Cartoons.
12 Comments
…to spead the word about this 40% off voucher for Threshers for instance.
Sorry about the lack of a decent post today. We have visitors and so the house did not need tidying but we were busy straightening ornaments and that sort of thing.
Posted by Dave at 7:11 pm on November 25, 2006 and filed under Mundane.
2 Comments
A debate has arisen in the Christian Unions comments section and elsewhere about Evangelicals and whether they are bad or not.
MadPriest continues his argument here: Don’t mention the war
and here: A Personal Statement<br>From The Maker Of This Product
MadPriest. I understand that you have come across some naughty Evangelicals who do not pay their parish share and who steal young people and teach them unhelpful doctrines. Things to say about this:
- Not all who would describe themselves as Evangelicals do these things. They really do not. There are some really splendid Evangelical Christian people.
- Other big churches do these things, not just Evangelical ones. They really do. There are some really bad Non-Evangelical Churches.
It really does not help your cause to generalise about people of a particular theological persuasion, any more than it helps to generalise about people of a particular gender / race / height / shoe size. People are all different. Churches are all different.
Posted by Dave at 5:40 pm on November 24, 2006 and filed under Ecumenical matters.
8 Comments
Time is short today as I have lot of drawings to finish off for people, so apologies for the lack of a cartoon. A couple of links on some of the stories that can loosely be described as ‘Anglican goings-on’:
Archbishop Rowan in Rome
Further updates to yesterday’s ‘Christian Unions’ story
Thanks for all the great comments on the Religious discrimination and Christian Unions posts by the way. If you read the blog via the feed or daily e-mail and haven’t clicked through to the comments then you might find they are worth a look.
Update:
Posted by Dave at 9:02 am on November 24, 2006 and filed under Anglican goings-on, Ecumenical matters.
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Some commenters yesterday remarked upon this story, whereby various University Christian Unions are in dispute with Student Unions for assorted reasons. Once again Bishops have waded in: Bishops warn students over Christian society bans says the Guardian. If anyone finds the actual letter with the list of signatories I’d be interested to see it. If you have time and / or energy you could look at earlier comments from Ruth Gledhill and her colleagues: Ruth Gledhill blog: Students and Christians and Times Online: Hallelujah, they’re standing up for Jesus.
Here is my take.
- First of all as Simon said yesterday this is nothing new at all. I imagine it has been going on as long as Christian Unions have existed. I was at Loughborough University in the late 1980s / early 1990s doing a degree in trams. Our Christian Union was, as Simon reminded me, banned from the Student Union because were were too exclusivist, insisting that everyone signed a doctrinal basis so that everything was kept Sound. It seemed to work - I have largely refrained from heresies from that day until this. I am sure we were not the only University where this sort of thing happened.
- Secondly, Christian Unions are overseen by the rather conservative UCCF. As an aside, the UCCF once tried to headhunt me by buying me lunch. A very good lunch it was too. It was the only time I have ever been headhunted, but I said no as it was a bit high pressured (and the pay was rubbish). Back to the point: I think the CUs vary a lot as to the strength of their affiliation with the UCCF, but at some Christian Unions the UCCF play a major role and therefore the Christian Union ends up being at the conservative end of the theological spectrum. That being the case it does not surprise me at all that there is the odd scuffle between the CU and the Student Union.
- Thirdly, the Christian Union is not the only Christian Student group on a University campus. There is often one or more of the following: an SCM group (more liberal), Fusion (more Charismatic), MethSoc (more Methodist), AngSoc (More Anglican), CathSoc (more Catholic), not to mention groups aligned with the chaplaincy which may or may not include some of the above. Even if ‘the Christian Union’ is excluded from the Student Union it does not mean that Christians are.
What I’m saying is that whatever the rights and wrongs of the individual cases (and I don’t really know enough about any one to make an in depth comment) I don’t think that these disputes are something to get too concerned about. Once again I think these Bishops have waded in where staying nice and dry and watching from a distance from the bank would really be the more sensible option.
Once again this cartooon can be freely reused on blogs if you put a link. This code will do the job:
<img src="http://www.weblogcartoons.com/cb/christian-union.gif" alt="cartoon from www.weblogcartoons.com" />
<p>Cartoon by <a href="http://www.cartoonchurch.com/blog/">Dave Walker</a>. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at <a href="http://www.weblogcartoons.com/">We Blog Cartoons</a>.</p>
Update: Bloggers talking about this today and recently:
Further update:
Additional further update:
Posted by Dave at 11:10 am on November 23, 2006 and filed under Cartoons, Church, Current events, Anglican goings-on, Ecumenical matters.
28 Comments
I am of course woefully late commenting about the story of the woman who wanted to wear a cross for evangelistic reasons but British Airways said no.
Archbishop Sentamu has waded in, but my opinion is that he should have saved his wading for a better issue. There is a time to wade and a time not to, and this was one of the latter.
It seems fairly clear to me that this is a case of “Christians… seeking aggressively to reassert their influence and profile”, to quote the Ekklesia article. It continues:
The think tank also questions the way some Christians are quickly resorting to language about persecution. “Given that Britain is a pretty open society, this kind of talk lacks proportion and is grossly insensitive towards many different minority groups across the world who face prison or death for their convictions,” says Barrow.
I suspect some of you will disagree with me. Feel free to tell me so in no uncertain terms.
Feel free to reuse this cartoon. Copying and pasting this code is one way to do so:
<img src="http://www.weblogcartoons.com/cb/discriminate.gif" alt="cartoon from www.weblogcartoons.com" />
<p>Cartoon by <a href="http://www.cartoonchurch.com/blog/">Dave Walker</a>. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at <a href="http://www.weblogcartoons.com/">We Blog Cartoons</a>.</p>
Update: Good points here: Bigbulkyanglican: Nadia Eweida - a Christian stand?
Posted by Dave at 11:03 am on November 22, 2006 and filed under Current events, Spirituality.
30 Comments
The not- quite- daily internet column of Dave Walker. Dave writes and draws for the Church Times and is to be the 'Cartoonist in Residence' for the 2008 Lambeth Conference. (
