My Sundays look very different these days.  There’s no getting around it – as a Curate I used to dread Sundays a bit; usually through my own fault, they often became a marathon of frantic prep, setup and activity.  The busy-ness of church life that can actually squeeze out any time to be with God.

These days, my Sunday mornings are purposefully free to leave me open to two possibilities:

The first is that I can make myself available to different churches from different parts of Belfast and beyond, to talk about the Titanic Quarter, or the Dock, or any combination of the two!  Over the past few weeks I’ve been invited to speak at Saintfield and Drumcree parishes, and it’s great to see people get excited about the Dock vision.  So if you belong to a church that might have a free slot behind the mic over the next few months – feel free to get in touch!

The second option is that I can use the ‘unbooked’ Sundays to throw myself into experiencing as many different denominations, congregations, and expressions of worship as possible!  I’m calling it “living the Shared Medley” – if I really believe in those core values of The Dock, I need to immerse myself in the variety and richness of church life in Northern Ireland – and who knows who I’ll meet, what I’ll see, and what God might use to speak to me in a new way?   I’m really looking forward to it!

Last Sunday was a great start – joining the worship at CFC in Strandtown in Belfast, I managed to stumble across their ‘Mobilise Out’ weekend and got to hear George Verwer, the founder of OM and therefore a hero figure for anyone thinking of doing outreach on a boat!

Then on Sunday afternoons of course it’s time to head to the TQ to meet up at 3:33 at The Streat with whatever Dock Walkers have arrived this week!  As the rain is chucking it down outside as I type, this might be the perfect time to show you some glowing pictures of surely our sunniest Dock Walk yet – and also the first to be be both a Dock Walk and a Dock Scoot:

– finishing up with coffee at the Pump House and a chance to strike our very own ‘Titanic- The Mission’ pose:

At the risk of bashing on about this, I am absolutely loving the Dock Walk experiment – talking about “the little book in the middle of the big book” as John Ortberg says.  I’m trying to learn to not over-prepare or to force the discussion in a particular direction – because often the insights and contributions of other walkers bring new ideas that I would never have thought of, and Dock Walk prayer and worship can adapt with the conversation.

Then on Sunday evenings, Susan and I are able to go to church together, and sit and worship as regular members of the congregation – you’ve no idea what a unique and fabulous opportunity that is for a minister!  We’ve found a great welcome in Willowfield parish in East Belfast – (nearly) next door neighbours to the TQ and a place with lots of friendly faces.

So every Sunday is different – but not a day to dread, I think you’ll agree!