Isn’t sunshine fantastic? The Titanic Quarter looks amazing today. The sun is shining on gleaming new architecture and beautiful old brickwork – the invigorating mixture of heritage and hope that’s all contained within this unique square mile of land.

The sun’s also shining on a flotilla of historic boats that have been arriving here in the TQ over the past few days in preparation for the Maritime Festival Weekend. There’s a fantastic lineup of events, stalls, live music, kids’ stuff…   If you’ve been waiting for the ideal opportunity to come down and visit the TQ, this weekend is it!  (you can find out more at http://www.belfastcity.gov.uk/maritimefestival/index.asp)

As if that wasn’t enough, there’s even a Dock Event this weekend…  Sunday afternoon is our second-ever Dock Prayer Walk, and I’m really looking forward to it.  Obviously the place is going to much busier and more exciting than on our first walk (yep, we were the only people out in the rain that day…) but I think that’s an ideal opportunity for us to walk, pray, chat, explore in the midst of the crowd rather than in splendid isolation.

So we’ll meet at The Streat in the Odyssey at 3pm on Sunday afternoon, and then just see where our footsteps take us… maybe to buy some food or an ice-cream, maybe to look around the beautiful old boats in the marina, maybe up into the TQ and to the old Drawing Offices (which will be open for the day).  And as we go, we’ll try to find a few places to stop and join in prayer.  As always, please don’t feel excluded if you don’t feel comfortable praying out loud – there will be some written prayers for us all to share in, as well as times for open or silent prayer.  The important thing is not the eloquence of our words!  But it is so vital that the streets, homes, colleges, offices and open spaces of this fantastic new community are “prayer-soaked” by people who are excited to see God at work here.

So, hopefully see you there!  I’ll just sign off with a very quick (honest! It’s less than a minute!) video, filmed as the first few ships started arriving behind the Odyssey a few days ago…