Can you believe that it’s less than 10 years that the Odyssey has been open? I can’t think of a time when heading out to the cinema didn’t mean popping down to the Storm (or Vue or whatever it was called at various stages!), when all staff dinners out didn’t (by law) take place in the Red Panda, or when a trip to a Giants match wasn’t a staple of every youth group timetable.   Have any of you reading this blog managed to get through life thus far without visiting the Odyssey at some stage?  I have loads of happy memories there – the whole stadium bopping along to Kylie, rocking along to Muse and laid-back-adult-oriented-rocking along to Coldplay, chilled-out dinners in the Tapas bar, the Franklin Graham event last year, the VIP seats in the cinema, my first Giants match… and I’m sure lots of you have Odyssey memories which make mine look very boring and thirtysomething.

If you’ve been to meet me for coffee over the last month you’ll know that the Odyssey is, at the moment, the semi-official HQ of The Dock and that The Streat cafe is The Dock parish office!  So I grabbed the chance on Friday to find out a bit more about this great, busy, weird and wonderful place at the centre of the Belfast social scene.

First up, during the day I got to meet Adrian, who’s the Operations Director in the Arena, and got a great behind-the-scenes tour of the site.  I saw the stage being set up for Flash Harry and the Ulster Orchestra (due the next night), had a tour of the corporate areas (very comfy seats) and even out the back of the Arena, which has fantastic views over the whole Titanic Quarter.

It was amazing to get a sense that again, this area is populated by people full of hope.  Like many of the interviewees in the Day In The Life video, Adrian and the Odyssey staff are hugely positive about all the potential of the site – how it is rooted in the past and its heritage, but also forward-looking and dynamic in seeking to build a place to live, work, play and relate in the 21st Century.  The Titanic Quarter, with its projected thousands of residents, students and tourists, has to be good news for the Odyssey – and in turn the Odyssey is good news for the TQ, a world-class concert and entertainment venue right on its doorstep.

After a wee bite of dinner it was time to head back to the Odyssey again at 10pm to sample the night life.  In case that makes me sound cool, let me quickly say that I wasn’t off to the Beach Club, Buddha or the Baxxx – well not directly…

NightLight is a group of Christians who have groups working in the Golden Mile, the Cathedral Quarter and the Odyssey Arena to share God’s love on the busy streets of late-night Belfast – offering practical help, a friendly face and a touch of grace.  (Check out www.missionireland.org/nightlight.asp if you want to find out more.)  After meeting up with John, their leader, just before Christmas, I was really keen to join them in action, and they were kind enough to invite me to join the Odyssey team for a Friday night on the town.

All of us probably have a mental picture of what the Odyssey is like in the wee small hours of Friday night/Saturday morning – and that picture probably looks like either your best night out ever, or Hell on Earth!  For me the most surprising thing was that it was quite quiet – busy, but not as manic as I was expecting.  According to the team, Friday is actually becoming one of the quieter nights of the week.  On the other hand, as Adrian had told me earlier in the day, there can be occasions when the entire audience of a concert in the Arena (10,000 people) can decide after the concert finishes to join the people in the restaurants, clubs and bars of the Pavilion (also 10,000-strong on a good night) – which is quite a crowd under one roof!

So after meeting up at 10, the group head out into the Odyssey to see what’s happening…  They told me stories of being involved in first-aid emergencies, broken ankles as a result of high-heels, teenagers helping their friends home after one too many…  What was incredible to see was how all the doormen, security staff and bar staff knew the team by name – obviously they’ve built up a rapport and have won the respect of the Odyssey people by being faithfully, reliably there when needed on countless occasions. The couple of hours flew in – between stories from the team, and stories from some of the people they’d helped.  And of course in this kind of ministry they know that much of their help will go unacknowledged and unrecognised – on this earth anyway.

So what a great day!  It made me very glad that the Odyssey is here in Belfast – there’s nothing quite like it.  It made me start thinking about what it means to be Chaplain to the Odyssey.  And one thing I realised was that I had spent another day of ministry without being near (and without needing to be near) a church building of any kind.  Praying with the NightLight team on chairs outside the Red Panda… chatting to security staff in the middle of the concourse of the Pavilion… chatting to Adrian about the hope for the future of Northern Ireland as we climbed the balconies backstage in the Arena…  it’s all church, just not as we know it.  Sometimes I find myself saying that The Dock church hasn’t really started yet.  Then I catch myself on and remember that praying in the streets of the TQ, brainstorming hopes and dreams in coffee shops, and meeting people on a Friday night out is church – and maybe the role of The Dock is not to build another place for Christians to hide, but to bring hope in the middle of normal life.

BFN!