A few weeks ago I told you that I was starting to ‘live the Shared Medley’ – visiting all the people and churches that I’ve already stumbled across in the course of The Dock’s first year.  As well as Christian Fellowship Church and East Belfast Mission, this week I shared dinner and a Thursday-evening praise service with a gang from the Charis network, and Sunday morning Mass at St Oliver Plunkett parish in West Belfast.  (You can find out more about any of those places by clicking on their names if you’re interested.)

The advanced among you will have noticed from that list that my vision for the Shared Medley covers quite a wide spectrum of denominations.  In fact I’ve maybe been a bit too cautious about expressing myself clearly up till now, so here goes: I believe that it’s time for the Catholic and Protestant churches in Northern Ireland to find more ways to work together.  And I hope that The Dock can act as something of a pilot project to put that unity into action.  My dream is that Catholics and Protestants from all sorts of different backgrounds and denominations will share the boat.

Now I know right off the bat that some people – maybe even some of you who check into this blog – will have diffciculties with that.  So rather than try to put the world to rights here and now, I’m going to write a few more ‘Living the Shared Medley’ blogs over the next few weeks to explain how I’ve arrived here – as it’s been a bit of a personal journey for me as well.

Watch this space!