Photo Competition - On display at Christ Church Cathedral

Congratulations to Edwina Towson of Oxford - the winner of The Door's photographic competition with this image taken in the early morning in Nice.  Edwina says: 'the footprints of the multitude in the sand and the lone figure in the boat strongly brought to mind the verse Mark 4:1.

'The crowd that gathered round him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water's edge'
Mark 4:1

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Our competition invited readers to submit photographs which they felt illustrated a particular Bible passage. It was fantastic to see so many photos of good presentation and high technical quality.  Here, the DOOR’s photographer Frank Blackwell and the Revd Mary Bide of Christ Church Cathedral, comment...

The 'highly commended' photographs were considered quite close to the standard of the winning picture. 

'Cobweb' (below) by Penny Sidebotham of Weedon, Bucks, is a difficult subject because it is almost transparent, but here the flimsy web is picked out well, perhaps because of frost?

‘Such is the fate of all who forget God.
The hope of the godless comes to nothing.
Everything they count on will collapse.
They are leaning on a spiders’ web’
Job 8: 13-14

Nets on the Shore’ (below), by Sandra Atkinson of Sonning Common, was liked by Mary who says: These are the working tools of fishermen; wet, heavy and tangled on the beach. It does not trivialise the hard work involved in being fishers of men.’

‘And he said to them,’Follow me and I will make you fishers of men’
Matthew 4:19

Ron Thompson of Bracknell took a tranquil and atmospheric photo of a boat on Lake Garda, Italy. The scene is reminiscent of the boats on the sea of Galilee and our judges felt it illustrates the words of the Psalmist beautifully.



'Be still, and know that I am God.'
Psalm 46:10

Churchill’s Christine Gowing opted for a photograph of grapes on a vine to illustrate a verse from the book of Revelation.



'Use your sickle now to gather the clusters of grapes from the vines of the earth, for they are fully ripe...'
Revelation 14:18

The photos by our winner and runnners-up will be exhibited in Christ Church Cathedral from 30 January for two weeks. The Cathedral warmly welcomes all who would like to view the photographs and reminds parishioners in the diocese that they can enter the Cathedral free of charge with a special entry card available from their local church.

If your church would be interested in displaying the photos for a short time, please contact Natalie Abbott on 01865 208 225.

Thank you to all our entrants, and to judges Frank, Mary and Diocesan webmaster Phil Hind.