Oranges are not the only Christingle

Having been described as "former blogger" just one too many times by a certain prolific and wise blog hero, I thought it really was time to get back here.

I was at a meeting last night with the planning group for a parish Sunday School. They were a fab group of dedicated and enthusiastic people full of love for all the members of their group, even those whom they have found challenging over the years.

Among other things we were discussing the construction of Christingles in preparation for their service. (ah memories of discussions on Dave Walker's site and his great alternative Christingles cartoon - to see it properly go to the church times archive or BUY THE BOOK or the other book - great Christmas presents for churcgoers) Not only did I get a chance to see the HUMAN CHRISTINGLE costume (which is a work of pure genius! I do have a pic but would hate to embarras the person who was demonstrating it at the time) they're going to be using but we also had a chat about what sweets would be used, what ribbon/red tape, what sweets/raisins do you use. I remember hours of agony with Dolly mixtures in a previous year. Not only are some dolly mixtures utterly impregnable but we had enthusiastic helpers putting four on each of the four sticks which meant we had to go to the pick and mix at Woolies (where would we go now?? So sad to hear of their demise!) and trawl through the pick and mix trying to pick out only the easily-spikeable-with-a-cocktail stick sweets.So our experiment last night was ... Can you spike a Haribo with a cocktail stick? Answer yes though it looks kinda cruel with the bears!!)

All this was great fun but I have to admit giggling FAR too much when we were esting if you could sellotape the ribbon to the fruit (rather than use pins which are a little un-child-friendly (never mind the fire, spikey cocktail sticks, potential nut/citrus/gluten/dairy allergy to sweets and the slip hazzards due to orange juice all over the floor!). The peopel hosting the meeting didn't have any oranges so we tested the sellotape theory on an apple. It got me thinking...

Why an orange? It represents the world... yes... why not an apple? a peach? I had great images of a Christingle pineapple (impressive but expensive!) and miniature Christingle grapes with hundreds and thousands for sweets (stuck to the sticks with icing!) Fellow youthworker Lizzie tells me she tried a melon Christingle one year.

So why an orange? Well, I like to do my research and apparently he story goes that it was an orange which Bishop John De Watteville used at the first Christingle in 1747. So that's why it's always been an orange before... but now... anyone doing alternative fruit Christingles PLEASE send me pics!!

Rabbiting on

Okay... so nothing for agaes and now a third blog in one day, I know, I know...

Contrary to popular belief (i.e. someone in the office this morning commenting), Dave Walker is not "not doing many cartoons" but in fact is clearly UP TO SOMETHING and he's also cartooning.

In fact his first cartoon of the conference is here. Which is not the usual place you might expect to find his cartoons which is here (or even here) but not normally here, where it actually is.

He also seems to be masquerading as a blogging bishop but then it's hard to tell that they are in fact blogging bishops as they only seem to have one laptop and none of them is wearing a mitre. If it weren't for the familiar face of Bishop Alan and the hint of purple I might have my doubts - oh me of little faith!

The Pen is Mitre than the sword

Marvellous news that Dave Walker has been invited to be the official "cartoonist in residence" at the Lambeth Conference 2008 (which also has a blog) Dave has more details but I am most excited by his proposal to have a colouring section for the bishops on his stall in the market place. I'm sure there are a few bishops out there who would enjoy that!

So what cartoons do we think there should be of the conference...

Bishops at Breakfast?
Bishops skiving off seminars and having a sneaky coffee/pint? (not that they would ever do that I'm sure!)
Bishops shopping for a new mitre??

I can't wait to see what he produces in his new official capacity. Well done mate!

Pipe dreams

We popped over somewhere yesterday and happened to drop into the SPCK so, as a mystery shopper on behalf of those interested in the situation facing this chain I had nose around. There was a section that looked like it could have been a really welcoming area where you could sit and peruse a book or could listen to any CD (the sales assistant working there said we could try any CD out which we were interested in) . Unfortunately the shelves were pretty much totally empty of books upstairs and there were hardly any CDs. We were told this was because the new owners don't want them buying any more CDs except the huge stack of approved CDs which apparently had been ordered for them - they didn't seem to have control over what was going to be in stock (hence the vast empty spaces, I guess) - and worse still they're not going to be able to PLAY any Christian music in the shop soon except that which is going to be piped in from a central source by the new owners.

I did manage to see quite a few useful books - our Bishop John's excellent book on the priesthood was there for example! - and I bought a book by John Bell and another on worship by Stuart Townend which I'd not noticed before but there didn't seem to be much in the way of youthwork books. I'm not sure if this is a policy thing or my inability to find them!

In cheeky mode I enquired if they had a Dave Walker Cartoon Church calendar and... they DID. However they only had one left and they weren't going to have them next year!! Mention of Dave (my friend, I said - check me knowing someone famous ;oP ) produced a smile from the sales assistant who said it was very pleasing that someone had given a voice to their concerns. Go Dave!

Christmas Presents

Just solving some christmas present problems... I've downloded and printed a copy of Dave Walker's 2007 calendar. Why don't you try the same!?

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.