You can’t have failed to notice that amongst several significant anniversaries over the next few weeks (Doctor Who!  Woo hoo!), 22nd November 2013 is the 50th anniversary of the death of C.S. Lewis.  There’s a wide range of events happening throughout Belfast to mark one of our most famous and influential sons – click here for details of the C.S. Lewis festival.

The Dock’s contribution to the festival steers away from lions, witches and wardrobes (being covered admirably elsewhere), and concentrates instead on Lewis’s huge contribution to discussion of Christian faith.  And so we’re holding lunchtime gatherings from 1-2pm next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (20th/21st/22nd) – events which I hope old Clive Staples would’ve enjoyed – you can easily imagine him enjoying a good discussion and debate around the tables in the Inklings in Oxford.

We’ll gather each day at 1pm in the Dock Prayer Garden, bringing our sandwiches and coffees, and as a discussion starter we’ll listen to some lovely old crackly radio recordings of C.S. Lewis’s broadcasts delivered during World War Two – addresses which later were combined into his incredibly influential ‘Mere Christianity’.

With his typical clarity and piercing intelligence, these broadcasts deal with issues like evolution and prayer – or as Lewis puts it in his wonderful plummy accent (no traces of East Belfast left in him by this stage), “the whole ideeaaarrr of praaaaarrr”.

Then we’ll discuss, debate and (probably) disagree – just as the great man intended.

No need to book – just see you there!