Dave Walker's blog. Dave is a freelance cartoonist who draws a weekly 'Guide to the Church' for the Church Times. (
The ‘public places in England’ smoking ban comes into effect on Sunday. As far as I can understand churches are required to put up signs, perhaps on a noticeboard for instance. The official guidance is here.
There have been various news reports over the last month or two about whether the signs should apply to churches. A debate in the House of Commons on the subject is here, and then there are news reports on the BBC, Christian Today and a comment piece by Matthew Parris from the Times. Some people have even gone as far as to say that the smoking ban threatens churches with closure, but I think that is a bit of an exaggeration, and perhaps even an over-exaggeration.
No smoking resources for churches are available on a few diocesan websites (Exeter and Hereford for instance) and of course you can use the official signs. I thought though that it would be a good idea to provide some signs of my own, so here they are. They are free to download, print off, or whatever. You don’t need to buy a licence to use them, though you do for most of my other stuff.
Please note that these signs might not be legal – in fact the first one is probably the only one which might be. I accept no responsibility for any trouble you may get into as a result of using these signs. If you get into a bit of a pickle it is your own doing, so don’t say I didn’t tell you so.
To download: In Internet Explorer you can save the file onto your computer by right clicking on the link, then selecting ‘ Save Target As…’, choosing where you want to store the image on your computer, then clicking ‘Save’. In Firefox right click on the link and select ‘Save Link As…’.
No Smoking
No Smoking: Download jpeg / Download pdf
No Smoking but incense is fine
No Smoking but incense is fine: Download jpeg / Download pdf
No Incense
No incense: Download jpeg / Download pdf
No breaking the law
No breaking the law: Download jpeg / Download pdf
(Ideal for churches who don’t want people breaking the law but don’t want to single out smokers)
[Note for bloggers: I appreciate your linking to this post - if you could link to the post rather than the individual files/images that would be great. The locations of the files may change depending on bandwidth usage. Thank you!]
If you’ve enjoyed these posters you might also like my church-related cartoons.
Update:
Letter to Oxford Diocesan Newspaper urging churches to be disobedient in this matter.
Update 2
Church Times – Deans accept no-smoking signs under protest – scroll down for article advising churches not to comply.
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