Hard to believe, but the Dock Walk has now been a regular weekly fixture of TQ life for exactly a year.  (OK – 13th June – Monday – will be the exact anniversary if you want to be pedantic, but Sunday 12th is the day we’ll mark the occasion!)

It’s hard to express just how much this sometimes unexpected, unpredictable dander on a Sunday afternoon has come to mean to me.  It is now absolutely my local church; the weekly gathering at which I can worship freely, meet with friends who have become family, have my faith deepened, strengthened and challenged.

I look forward to it every week.  Sometimes during the week, if something crops up on the news or in the Wordlive readings, I find myself thinking “I can’t wait to chat about that with the Dock Walkers!”   I love the mix, the banter, the way it’s so natural and unforced to chat with people (even sometimes about the deep and meaningfuls of life) as we walk along together.

I love the buzz of meeting at the Streat at 3:33, never quite knowing who’s going to be there, always wondering if this will be the week I’ll end up walking on my own!  (I’ve always said I’ll happily go for a solo walk if needs be, but it’s never been necessary – someone’s always turned up – sometimes 50 someones have turned up!)  I love the debrief over coffees at the Premier Inn when it’s all over, as we sometimes commandeer the coffee lounge (thanks Premier Inn, and sorry!) with a bunch of happy, weary, chatty walkers finding out each other’s life stories.

I love the way the Dock Walk concept – to become a community of people who connect around the Wordlive Bible resource during the week as well as chatting about it on Sundays – has completely transformed my own discipline and engagement with the Bible.  I love the way people connect to different things – to the conversation, or to the inspiration of walking through the Titanic Quarter, or listening to worship music praising God while standing in the midst of his Creation, or just the chat and fellowship with such a diverse, fascinating bunch of people.

I love the sense that going for a walk together is something so ancient in a lot of ways, and yet is something quite new as a way to do church.  I love that walking carries that sense of journey, risk, adventure that is so central to the Dock.

I love it that between August and April, no matter how bad the weather was during the rest of the week, it never rained on a Sunday afternoon!  (Of course, the very week I pointed this out, one of the walkers commented that rain is actually a symbol of blessing in the Bible. Sure enough, about 10 minutes later it started to rain!)

I love the memories of standing under blazing sunsets, soaring cranes, flocks of seagulls, firework displays, storm-clouds, jet-streams and hundreds of other ever-changing skies, thinking thankyou, God, that this is church.

So – I wonder if you’ve maybe gathered? – I love it!
Happy Birthday to you, Dock Walk
Happy Birthday to you.

Chris