This is Bishop Michael Jackson (as he was then) and I sorting the press badges for the 2008 Lambeth Conference into alphabetical order. I can’t remember exactly how we came to be doing this, but I think it was a day or two before the conference and some help was required in the nerve centre of the operation and we both happened to be there with some time to spare. I am known, as you are no doubt aware, for my administrative skills, so I was, no doubt, an obvious choice.

I do remember clearly that he was a very friendly bishop and he was most interested in my cartooning activities. I wish him well in his new job.

Today has been, for me at least, an even more surreal day than yesterday. In summary, I got to present a second cartoon to the Archbishop of Canterbury, on this occasion in the big top in front of the whole Lambeth Conference at the end of the final plenary session. I am, as you can see, making this cartoon-giving to the Archbishop a daily habit (he will be dreading tomorrow, just in case that wretched cartoonist shows up again with yet another canvas that he has to do something with). This time the cartoon was The bishops of the 2008 Lambeth Conference.

Photograph: ACNS / Scott Gunn – also on Flickr (Thanks to Scott for taking the time to send me these so quickly).

The handover was in itself a comedy moment – I was stationed on the stage with my cartoon wrapped in a black bin liner whilst the bishop in charge of the final thankyous thanked the Archbishop for all he has done at the conference. At this point an Important Person of the Anglican Communion said ‘go’, the head of Important Things at Lambeth Palace said ‘go’, so I started my walk across the stage towards the bishop at the lectern. However, the lectern bishop decides that he is not ready for me to arrive in his domain, so waves me away. I must emphasise that all of this is happening in front of the entire Lambeth Conference. I stand mid stage, unannounced, looking like a badly-timed rabbit in the spotlights.

[Photo: ACNS / Scott Gunn]

I turn to one of the organisers of the spouses conference who is standing nearby and ask for advice. She agrees that I am in a bit of a predicament. Everyone then sits down (the point at which the above photo is taken). After what seems like a short to medium term eternity (though no doubt it was probably only a few seconds) the lectern bishop ushers me forward and I hand over the cartoon canvas. The image was projected up onto the screens (thanks to Brian at the Church Times who sent me a good quality high res version) and people seemed to like it.

[Photo: ACNS / Scott Gunn]

I’d say more about this and things in general, but I am exhausted. Tonight was the closing Eucharist at the Cathedral, which was magnificent for all sorts of reasons, followed by food in the grounds of the cathedral. Unfortunately it was pelting down with rain, which meant that everyone got quite wet, especially idiot cartoonists who did not take a coat. The cathedral people opened up one of their halls for us to eat in, which was great as a party atmosphere began to develop. I have pictures of the dancing (including one fairly well-known Archbishop) but I will not be posting them, not least because they are rubbish as pictures. I must confess to having undertaken a small amount of dancing myself, after a posse of stewards demanded it. And great fun it was too.

Thanks to everyone for your kind comments after the last photograph of a cartoon handover. And continued thanks for all the other kindness of various sorts.

[Updated Sunday morning to add photographs]

This afternoon I had the opportunity to present a cartoon canvas to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams. The cartoon is ‘the parish system‘. The Archbishop has visited my cartoon tent on several occasions over the course of the Lambeth Conference and this was one picture that he had enjoyed.

As you may have picked up I am a great fan of the Archbishop, so to be given this chance was a highlight of what has already been for me a really quite overwhelming conference. The handing over of the canvas was originally planned for 14.30 in the cartoon tent, but in light of the Archbishop’s time commitments today the venue was moved to his flat / office and the time to 16.50. My wife and one of the official conference photographers came with me. The picture makes it look as if part of the image is missing, but that is just the sunlight shining behind the canvas.

Tomorrow is the final plenary session followed by a service in Canterbury Cathedral. I go home on Monday.

The photograph (ACNS / Sweeny) shows the CartoonChurch marketplace stand with two of my kind helpers helping. As you can see we made the most of the fact that the organisers had provided a basketball hoop.

In order to cut out the slam-dunking bishop I trawled the entire conference for a pair of decent scissors. In the end I ended up in the office of the Lambeth Secretariat, from whom I borrowed the official Lambeth Conference Scissors. I can reveal (and Scott, this is an EXCLUSIVE) that although the official Conference Scissors look impressive they are blunt, and in the end I discovered (having cut out the entire bishop) that my idea three-for-a-pound scissors were better. The people in the Lambeth Secretariat were very friendly though and it was a pleasure to meet them.

Today I have not been in the tent as the wind has been blowing furiously and I do not feel that my tent is safe (I am being serious). It is a very good tent, but the people putting it up did a poor job of the installation and the whole thing is only secured by four pegs. I tried to find some extra pegs, but I could not really afford to run around for half the day looking for them.

Yesterday I arrived at the tent to find that my folding chair had been stolen in the night. In return I had been left a red ASB Holy Communion book. An utter mystery.

By the way, yesterday’s BBC film crew were filming for the BBC News Channel (formerly BBC News 24). Unfortunately there is no ‘watch again’ for most of the output of the news channel, so unless you were watching at that time you will, like me, have missed it. They were to film again today, but I spoke to them earlier and it has been decided that there is no story, so they have left.

Today I talked to William Crawley from BBC Northern Ireland. He wrote about me here yesterday. We recorded a short interview for his Sunday show in the lobby of the prayer centre, but people kept on coming into the building to use the facilities (of one kind or another) meaning that we had to stop and start to avoid the sound of electric doors and hand driers. I was not very confident so will probably come across poorly.

Other people writing kind things about me: Episcopal Life and BBC Kent.

My cartoons from the conference are appearing on the Lambeth Daily, here. As you will have noticed my cartoons have not been daily. This is owing to various factors.

For proper news about what is going on see the Church Times Blog. I have added quite a lot of entries today, most of them by other people.

Finally, please forgive the following things:

• The self promotional nature of this and in fact many of my posts.
• The fact that I am not remotely keeping up with e-mail at the moment.

…in which I ramble a bit about various things.

Continued thanks, by the way, to friends everywhere.

As far as I know no other blog is carrying the Friday 18 July flow diagram for the Rutherford dining hall for Lambeth Conference bishops. As you can see the bishops are expected to come down the stairs with their hands clasped in front of them in a bishoply fashion before making their food selections, eating, and exiting to the bar or toilets.

In other news: Scott Gunn, a low-to-mid level operative in the Lambeth photography team continues to post things that the mainstream media won’t: Disturbing development in the Dave Walker story

Today I have been sad because, like Cinderella, I have not been allowed to go to the Cathedral with the bishops, but happy because my wife arrives this evening for a day or two.

Left: David Walker, Bishop of Dudley.
Right: David Walker, Cartoonist of Basildon.

Bishop David has mentioned our meeting on his Thinking Anglicans diary post.

The CartoonChurch stand in the Lambeth Conference Marketplace will open on Monday for the best part of two weeks. It will be open from 11am until 9pm most days except Thursday 24 July.

This is the stand in its pre-setup state. As you can see I asked for the following fittings to be installed:

• Two folding chairs
• One collapsible church hall table
• One basketball hoop with attached large white mechanism thing
• One small cardboard box
• One sheet of A4 paper

Overall I think the staff have done remarkably well, don’t you?

Please feel free to use the comments to suggest how we might be able to use this assorted equipment. Remember that we need to communicate the ethos of the organisation and sell lots of books.

[Marketplace helpers: Sorry for lack of communication with some of you. I will send you some final information shortly.]

I do not wish to make a statement confirming or denying whether I am denying or confirming anything at this time.

This tent-cam picture was in fact taken by a ‘bishop-cam’, aka Bishop Alan Wilson who kindly sent it to me last night. My tent was lit up for the whole night because I couldn’t work out how to turn my light off. It was, to quote Bishop Alan ‘glowing with weird scifi type energy in the gloaming’. It occurred to me in the middle of the night that I could have just unplugged it.

Meanwhile Scott Gunn, one of the official Lambeth Conference photographers has an exclusive on my tent: A mystery in Canterbury? I am not currently willing to make any statement about the rumour that I will be performing some of my cartoons through the medium of liturgical dance.

You can, by the way, see Scott’s pictures here: Flickr: Lambeth Conference 2008′s Photostream

Sorry, by the way, about the lack of Church Times entries. This is for technical reasons. (Update: I’m back and blogging again at the Church Times)

I will, as requested, endeavour to post a tent-cam picture with me in it later on.