Have a go at our next caption competition (above). Send entries by email only to captioncompetition@churchtimes.co.uk by 9 a.m., Friday 9 December.
We invite readers’ ideas for photos: please provide a credit and confirm that those pictured are happy for the photo to be used.
Here is the winning entry for the previous competition:
Alamy
Oh, no, not another “Just Stop Mint Sauce” protest (Rob Falconer)
He was such a popular preacher, the place was rammed (Mary Hawkins)
A SELECTION of this week’s entries: “What! No Goats? Haven’t you read the story?” (Ray Goode); “In an episode of One Clergyman and No Dog, the Bishop successfully pens his flock on Southwark Bridge” (David Norfolk); “As he preached to his flock, he thought they looked a little sheepish today” (Victoria Prince); “The Bishop had asked clergy to pay close attention to their flock, but had been slightly misunderstood” (Richard Hough); “Day one for the clergy intern, and the Bishop explains that ‘tending the flock’ is just a metaphor” (Philip Lickley); “I sheepishly thought my flock would be more of the human sort” (Jonathan Beele); “You should be at Baa-rnes Bridge. And your children are at Lamb-eth” (Richard Martin); “95, 96, 97, 98, 99. . . I could swear we started out with 100” (Lionel Holmes).
“While shepherds watched their flocks on site” (Karen Bowman); “Seek and ewe shall find” (Alison Woods); “I’ve been sent to find the wolf in sheep’s clothing!” (Chaz Griffiths); “He treated his flock like lambs to the slaughter” (Anne Parmenter); “Wool-gathering is so much more pleasant than sermon-writing” (John Appleby); “Don’t cross the bridge, sheep, it’s a foreign country over there” (Bill Bishop).
“Fr Paul ruminates on whether he should have bought Mrs Shepherd’s homemade mint sauce at the church fair last weekend” (Gordon Giles); “Send for the Bishop — a crook will be needed to shepherd this lot” (John Saxbee); “In their appreciation of sermons, they set the baa quite low” (Martin Kettle); “When Darth Vader removed his helmet, his sheep recognised their Master’s voice” (Jo Mash); “And lo, the shepherd brought his flock unto Southwark . . . for congestion charging” (Christopher J. Parker); “Sorry! The Liturgical Commission could be considering a possible baaptism service for sheep, but at the moment the best we can offer is a blessing” (Philip Goggin).
“The Vicar had hoped his congregation would flock to his services, but he hadn’t expected them to be so utterly woolly-minded (Allison Rollin); “All we sheep have every intention of erring and going astray!” (Michael Foster); “Bishop lambasted by see” (Paul Vincent); “The goats have already turned left” (Janet Stockton); “When the Holy Father asked me to feed his sheep, I thought it was a metaphor” (Robert Shooter); “Trying to save the lost sheep has somewhat backfired on this occasion” (Chris Corteen); “Preaching to the penned sheep, to be sheared of their winter coat, just for a photoshoot?” (Dev Nallathamby); “Who are you calling a woolly liberal?” (James Anderson); “The Reverend wished he’d been more specific with his request for knitting donations for the Church’s Christmas market” (Valerie Ganne).
As ever, the winner receives a prize of Fairtrade chocolate, courtesy of Divine Chocolate.
divinechocolate.com