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November 12th, 2007

Church chair

church chair

5 Links:

Come Home For Christmas
The Catholic Church has a campaign called Come Home For Christmas to encourage people to go back to church at Christmas. It is a bit like ‘Back to Church Sunday’, but the name is different. There is a downloads page where you can get resources such as ‘A Leaflet For The lapsed’.

Sorted Magazine
You might remember that the other week I mentioned ‘Sorted Magazine’, the UK’s first Christian magazine for men. Well, there is now a website and also a Facebook group. I have not seen the magazine yet so I am thin on particulars.

Just This Day
The Just This Day campaign encourages places of worship to open their doors so that people can be quiet on November 28th. The main event in the UK will be at St Martin’s in the Fields where ‘a 3 minute stillness will take place on the hour’. The rest of the time there will be an unholy racket. Sorry.

Affirming Liberalism
Affirming Liberalism is ‘a new network for all Christians, ordained and lay, Affirming Anglican Liberal Christians and Christianity, in the Oxford Diocese and beyond’. Sounds pretty inclusive. All we need now is an ‘Affirming Evangelicalism’ and we’ll have the set. (Thanks to Richard for this.)

Sophia Network
The Sophia Network is a network for women in youth work. I wish it every success as the people behind it are good people. I note that the ‘who we are‘ page mentions that Sharon Prior (who interviewed me when I went to Biblical college) ‘loves walking on the beach and eating Chinese food’. Ah, multitasking. (Thanks to Sarah for this.)

Note: Picture may not relate to article.



This is a single Cartoon Blog entry, posted by Dave on Monday, November 12th, 2007 at 12:57 am.

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10 Responses to “Church chair”


  1. Anne says:

    Hmmm. What you need is the sort of chair with the rack under the seat. The kind in your drawing is doubly awkward because some people would assume that the prayer book/hymnal/Bible/service leaflet/supplemental hymnal/whatever in the rack on the back actually belongs to the person sitting just behind. It’s kind of like sitting in coach on an airplane. You’re supposed to put your handbag under the seat in front of you, but half the people don’t. I’m giving myself a headache just working out the logistics.

    November 12th, 2007 at 3:26 am
  2. MQ says:

    I think you’re supposed to use the pocket of the seat in front of you. Just rather bad luck for the people in the front row.

    …oh, sorry, I forgot, this is an Anglican church: there *are* no people anywhere near the front row.

    November 12th, 2007 at 3:48 am
  3. chris clark says:

    I gather the idea of the Hymn Book pocket is to ensure people look round other than in the peace…

    Nice try but to be really comprehensive we will need Affirming :-

    Evangelical Liberals,
    Liberal Evangelicals,
    Conservative Liberals,
    Conservative Liberal Evangelicals….etc.

    November 12th, 2007 at 11:16 am
  4. Simon says:

    Many years ago, Buzz magazine advertised a chair with chariamatic arm rests for those for whom holding their arms aloft during a particularly long seated worship and praise session was becoming just too tiring.

    It was the April edition, but I would have thought there could be some mileage in it..

    November 12th, 2007 at 11:46 am
  5. Russ says:

    We have chairs like this in our church, and they generally work fine, as the people who sit in the front row (yes, there are some, although they have to be specially trained) manage to be quite adept at storing newssheets and stuff about their persons. Or they simply take no notice of the service as they engaged in preventing small children from running amok. Not always successfully.
    Interesting, the word ‘amok’ - which I suddenly needed to find out the derivation of - comes from the Malay word amuk, meaning “mad with rage”. In case you ever wondered …

    November 12th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
  6. BSI says:

    Good one!

    November 12th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
  7. Am I liberal? Who knows (who cares)? » Metacatholic says:

    Now there’s another such group (HT Dave Walker) to give me that old mixed reaction feeling: Affirming Liberalism. No doubt in Oxford Diocese, spiritual home of Anglican Mainstream, the liberals feel in need of some affirmation. (Am I the only one who can’t avoid the disrespectful thought, when I see AM’s founding fathers Philip Giddings and Chris Sugden being interviewed together, that they look like a crotchety gay couple?) Part of me is very pleased to see people sticking up for the “L” word. Not only do we believe in the liberality of God, but we believe we should love him with all our minds, and that our rationality is a part of being made in his image. Another part of me always thinks liberal is a better adjective than it is a noun, a flower rather than a root. …

    November 12th, 2007 at 8:05 pm
  8. David Keen says:

    There are no so many people affirming other people that we need a new Affirming Affirmers network.

    November 12th, 2007 at 10:27 pm
  9. Peter Kirk says:

    The problem with chairs like this in my church is that people hang their coats over the back of their own chairs, which means that the people behind can’t get at the pocket in the chair in front. But we have largely solved the problem by projecting the words for hymns and liturgy, so that the only people who need to use the books in the pockets are the short-sighted and those for whom tradition seems to demand that they hold a book. The latter group includes some people with learning difficulties who 50% of the time hold their books upside down. There might have been a problem for those who wanted to follow the Bible reading, but there isn’t because our church Bibles are too big for the pockets, and so end up on empty chairs or on the floor.

    November 13th, 2007 at 2:10 pm
  10. Geoff McLarney says:

    Leave us not forget

    November 19th, 2007 at 4:28 pm