My aim has been to blog daily, and up to now I haven’t been too bad at it. But today, ie yesterday, I failed. In fact I have failed on about two or three occasions over the last week, but I have subtly altered the date and time to make it look as if the post has been done before midnight, when it hasn’t.

I went to church twice today.

Sorry, this post was rubbish. I’ve crossed it out.

Posted by Dave at 12:43 am on May 21, 2007 and filed under Mundane, Sundry posts.

5 Comments

These are examples of the latest forms of transport available for funerals and weddings that were on show at the Christian Resources Exhibition. I’m a great fan of unusual forms of transport – I have a degree in trams and buses as some of you know. One was a car made partly from half a boat, another was a trike that was made using the other half of the same boat but upside down, another was small and red with three wheels and pedals and there was a small white scooter.

This is the sign that explained about the vehicles.

I have not quite worked out where this small red tricycle would fit into the plans for a funeral, but there are many things that I have not yet worked out.

This is why I like the Christian Resources Exhibition. There are all sorts of odd and unusual exhibits and people mingled in with the predictable ones. I bet half the people there didn’t even see this little display. It wasn’t on the programme as far as I am aware. The moral of the story is that it is important to wander around a bit whilst looking for a nice spot to eat your sandwiches.

Posted by Dave at 11:44 pm on May 19, 2007 and filed under Sundry posts.

5 Comments

This is Tim, seen yesterday renewing and serving the Christian Resources Exhibition public by means of chocolate brownies. You might remember Tim as he draws cartoons and I wrote about him. He was on the Lee Abbey stall stand (I called them ‘stalls’ last year and got told off by the organisers).

Anyway, I enjoyed my visit to the Christian Resources Exhibition as I always do. I met all sorts of people, and had all sorts of texts sent to me to which I will reply shortly. I took a few pictures and a lot of brochures – most of which I wanted, but a few were forced upon me by over-eager exhibitors. I met up with Dave for coffee, which was marvellous.

Over the coming days I’ll post a bit about some of the more bizarre and quirky Christian resources currently available to the churchgoing public. Some of them really are quite splendid. I might mention one or two worthwhile ones too.

I might go back to the CRE tomorrow (Friday). It depends.

Posted by Dave at 3:02 pm on May 17, 2007 and filed under Ecumenical matters, Festivals and Exhibitions, Religion.

4 Comments

I launched this website there in 2005 (Blog entries: 1, 2, 3, 4)

I made an exhibition of myself again in 2006

I will be going again today (ie Wednesday) to loiter, browse, mingle, observe and gain ideas for cartoons. I might go again on one of the other days, or I might not.

I’ll be on 07984 745281 if anyone who is there wants to say hello or meet up. Or indeed if anyone who will not be there wants to send a text to keep me alert. This is not my usual mobile number by the way, as I do not post my usual mobile number on the internet.

Posted by Dave at 12:19 am on May 16, 2007 and filed under Festivals and Exhibitions, Religion.

4 Comments

Jerry Fallwell died today, aged 73. Difficult to know what to say, but I think that Jim Wallis has the right idea on his blog:

I was saddened to learn that Rev. Jerry Falwell passed away this morning at age 73. Rev. Falwell and I have met many times over the years, as the media often paired us as debate partners on issues of faith and politics. I respected his passionate commitment to his beliefs, and our shared commitment to bring moral debate to the public square, although we didn’t agree on many things. At this time, however, what matters most is our prayers for comfort and peace for his family and friends.

Other religion bloggers have written a lot of course. A selection of interesting ones:

Jerry Falwell, fundamentalist, dead at 73 » GetReligion
BBC Will and Testament | William Crawley’s broadcasting diary
Ruth Gledhill – Times Online – WBLG: Jerry Falwell dead

Update: Damian Thompson is upset about the BBC’s coverage.

Posted by Dave at 12:05 am on May 16, 2007 and filed under Current events, Religion.

2 Comments

The government here in the UK is revising the Highway Code. The Highway Code, for those who don’t know, is the booklet which tells you how to behave on the roads in the UK. It always used to look a bit like the famous evangelistic booklet ‘Journey into Life’, but was more expensive. There is a test on the Highway Code when you take your driving test in the UK (Many Evangelical Churches conduct a test on ‘Journey into Life’ before you are allowed to join the coffee rota, but I digress).

Anyway, the serious bit. The plans for the new Highway Code will be very bad for cyclists. Among the problems with the proposed changes is the fact that cyclists will be forced to stick to the cycle lanes and paths rather than the road. This is a bad thing for all sorts of reasons – the CTC, the Times and the Guardian explain it better than I can do here. This really is going to happen – the new Highway Code will ‘become law’ within the next 40 days if I understand things correctly.

There is something you can do if you act quickly. The Cambridge Cycling Campaign has encouraged their MP to present a petition to parliament which anyone can sign. See Actions every cyclist must take to safeguard their right to use the road. You can print off the petition from this page – it does need to be printed and posted, and it does need to be done straight away as the deadline is Thursday. The petition is as follows:

The Presenting Member: David Howarth MP

PETITION FROM Cllr Ian Nimmo-Smith and others

To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled.

The Humble Petition of Cllr Ian Nimmo-Smith and others of like disposition

Sheweth

That there is significant concern that the proposed changes to the Highway Code will force cyclists to use sometimes inadequate cycle facilities and that the proposal to require cyclists to ride on the left-hand lane on roundabouts will place cyclists in greater danger.

Wherefore your Petitioners pray that your honourable House shall urge the Department of Transport to reconsider the proposed revisions to the Highway Code so that cyclists are not required to use cycle facilities ‘wherever possible’.

And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, &c

Just for into, the e-mail I received about it:

> Cambridge MP David Howarth has an opportunity at very short
> notice to present a petition in the House of Commons opposing the
> changes detrimental to cycling in the new Highway Code which is now
> before parliament.
>
> Anyone can sign the petition: it is not specific to Cambridge
> constituency voters.
>
> Unfortunately though it has to be physically signed with an
> original signature on the correct form. Therefore, please can
> we ask you to print the form which you can find at
>
> http://www.camcycle.org.uk/campaigning/issues/highwaycode/petition.html
>
> (make sure you have the whole link including the .html that might be
> truncated in this email)
>
> fill it in and send it by post *to ARRIVE by this THURSDAY morning*
> at the absolute latest (Wednesday if possible) to
>
> David Howarth MP
> David House, Room 4/11
> Norman Shaw North
> House of Commons
> London SW1A 0AA
>
> (n.b. not just to the usual House of Commons address, please, as
> that mail would then end up back in Cambridge)
>
> Please ask friends and colleagues who you can contact to fill in the
> form as well. Please feel free to circulate this as widely as you can.
>
> Further details about the highway code issue can be found at
> http://www.camcycle.org.uk/campaigning/issues/highwaycode
>

Please pass this on, blog it etc. Thanks to Paul Roberts for telling me about it.

[An unrelated petition is this one: "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Listen to cyclists and not approve the revised highway code", but the petition above is, I think, far more important.]

Unrelated diagram for reference purposes:

Posted by Dave at 1:38 pm on May 15, 2007 and filed under Current events, Cycling.

17 Comments

Things have not gone according to plan at all and so there are no drawings or diagrams today.

Here are some links I saw today or recently:

Blogs4god. The new Blogs4god site is now open. Blogs4god was the original Christian blogging site as I mentioned the other week. On this new version you can vote for things you find interesting so that other people will find them too.
blogs4God / Popular Posts

The UK’s first Christian TV advert? Ruth Gledhill thinks so. It is the Alpha course ad, to be shown in the summer. Oddly enough they don’t seem to have anything on their website about it.
Ruth Gledhill – Times Online – WBLG: Alpha ‘on’ Big Brother

Visual Liturgy. There is a new version out, which means that services can be computerised in ever more advanced ways. It all goes over my head somewhat, but I know some of you will love it.
Visual Liturgy goes Live | Church of England

Hey Big Spencer. This is from my old village, Cookham. Lots of artists each did a small square of a Stanley Spencer painting and the results were joined together to make a giant painting. The first link has photos, the second is Timmy Mallettt’s video featuring the artwork in progress and also Rolf Harris, who lives locally. As does Timmy. As did I until I left to become the prodigal cartoonist.
Hey Big Spencer
YouTube – Hey Big Spencer!

Si Smith has been making a large model of Jesus for Greenbelt. His journal has other pictures of his work too. Warning – lots of images so slow on dialup.
SimonSmithIllustration

John Davies now has a feed on his blog. John was one of the first Christians blogging back in the early days of computing and has always has interesting links and things to say. Today I noticed that his site has an atom feed so you can follow it via your favourite feed reader.
John Davies
John’s feed

Church Marketing Lab. People who make church publicity materials show off the things they have done.
Church Marketing Sucks: Church Marketing Lab: Body Piercing, Language School and More..

Posted by Dave at 11:59 pm on May 14, 2007 and filed under Sundry posts.

3 Comments

More photos from London last week:

1.

2.

Posted by Dave at 11:51 pm on May 13, 2007 and filed under Church, Photographs, Religion.

9 Comments

On Thursday I went to London to do a bit of thinking. I need to do thinking as otherwise I do not have any ideas, and when I do not have ideas I cannot do any cartoons, and when I do not do cartoons then there are various problems.

I like to go to places which have some sort of church connection, as there is a chance I will see interesting leaflets or see church-type people doing church-type things, all of which help my thinking along a bit.

These are some photos of some of the places I went on Thursday:

Above: The cafe at the Salvation Army headquarters near the Millennium bridge. I often go here. It is modern and spacious and there are Salvationists going about their business. I have a lot of respect for the Salvationists. The man in the picture is a Salvationist, and as you can see he is going about his business.

Above: This is the cafe at the Methodist Central Hall. It is a bit more like a canteen than a cafe, but it suits my purposes just fine. It is opposite Westminster Abbey and just down the road from Church House, the Church House bookshop and the SPCK. In the picture you can see some Methodists lunching.

Above: The only problem with the Methodist canteen is the wallpaper. It is a bit yellow for my liking. That said, I do not think that the Methodists should devote their energy to changing their canteen wallpaper as thy have many more pressing concerns. If I am to be honest the yellow Methodist wallpaper is not one of my greatest worries either.

Questions for study groups
1) Where do you go to do your thinking?
2) Why do you think the Methodists chose yellow wallpaper?

Posted by Dave at 11:59 pm on May 12, 2007 and filed under Church, Ecumenical matters, Religion.

16 Comments

I observed the above facility faculty notice during a wander around some churches in the City of London this week. (A facility faculty notice, for those who don’t know, is an application to The Powers That Be to make changes to a historic church. Well, more or less.) The notice reads:

The grant of (three?) licences for the use of a desk (and other facilities) in the Vestry of St Clement’s Church, Eastcheap 1 St Clement’s Court London EC4N 7HB for a term of 12 months from 1st January 2007

This intrigued me for these reasons:

1. Do you need a licence to use a desk in a vestry? Perhaps readers can educate me. Do any of you have unlicenced desks in your vestries?
2. Why do you need three licences for one desk? (I’m fairly sure that’s what is written, but not 100% certain owing to the fact the notice was written without the use of a desk.)
3. What are the ‘other facilities’? I think this could be the key to this notice. The desk is there to make us think that the vestry is to be used for writing in service books and suchlike, but it is my suspicion that there are some unusual ‘other facilities’ being installed under the smokescreen of a desk, so to speak. Any suggestions?

More info about the church in question is here. It doesn’t mention the desk, which just goes to prove my point(s).

[Edited to change my facilities to faculties.]

Posted by Dave at 11:59 pm on May 11, 2007 and filed under Church, In-depth analysis, Religion.

12 Comments

You can see a larger version of this one here on the main CartoonChurch.com site.

If you’ve been enjoying the cartoons I’ve been posting over the last day or two you’ll like my book, the Dave Walker Guide to the Church. This page has all of the samples from the book I’ve posted so far. Well, most of them.

You can order the book through most bookshops – just go to the person behind the desk and say ’9781853117794′ and there will be an embarrassing silence. Then you can explain that that is the ISBN number and they will suddenly understand and start typing buttons on their computer. Alternatively some good Christian bookshops stock it, as does the internet. More info here.

Thanks for listening to all the adverts.

Posted by Dave at 8:00 am on May 10, 2007 and filed under Cartoons, Church, New CartoonChurch cartoons, Religion.

13 Comments

You can see a larger version of this cartoon here. I have also uploaded a larger version of yesterday’s one, ‘How to recognise people’, which is here.

If you’d like to use these cartoons in your church magazine then you can do so by purchasing a licence. They cost £35, which allows you to use unlimited numbers of my cartoons in your church publications for a year. There are a few conditions but nothing too complex. Get in touch if you have any further questions or if you want to use cartoons elsewhere or if you’d like to employ me.

Posted by Dave at 11:59 pm on May 9, 2007 and filed under Cartoons, Church, New CartoonChurch cartoons, Religion.

5 Comments