Honestly, you wait all your life for one Chaplain… and then six turn up at once!

Those of you who have been following the Dock project from the start – through days of coffeestorming, deckchair cafes, boat-hunting expeditions and meanwhile projects – will know that from the very beginning we had a vision to be a new kind of church for this new area and new era of Belfast – one in which we left our divisions and silos in the past.

Well I am profoundly thankful to be able to report that as of this month, The Dock now involves Chaplains from six different traditions – even more than I might have dared to dream.  Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Presbyterian, Congregational, Nazarene – or as they prefer to be known (because who boxes people up like that any more?), Chris, Karen, Finian, Brian, Wesley and Richard.  Call into Dock Cafe any day and you will bump into one of them, serving your coffee, lurking back at Doris the Dock Dishwasher, or just mooching around the tables enjoying the craic.

Just as a little reminder of the days in which this all seemed like such a far-off dream… here’s an old Dock Movie from early 2010 where you can see the idea starting to take form.

Hopefully my movie-making abilities have developed in those 3 years (check out those blurry zooms, mmm!) – but how amazing to look back and see how the vision developed – sometimes slowly, sometimes frustratingly, two-steps-forward-and-one-step-back – from a concept to a community.