Loads of thoughts and prayers from Dock-world to those who are caught up in the unfolding drama of the Costa Concordia – the capsized cruise ship off the coast of Italy.

Humbling to realise that even with all our modern technology, the sea is still a dangerous place…

And interesting to see that there’s one ship, one maritime disaster, that is still on the lips of everyone – from journalists to rescued passengers – involved in the unfolding story…

Another fantastic Dock Walk on Sunday – for a whole load of reasons:

1.  My ma was there (hello mum!) – as many of you will know, my mum is a bit of a Dock hero – she gets up at 6:55am every time I’m on the radio, she makes cakes for the birthday parties…

2. We had a great chat about the Wordlive readings for the week, and listened again to the early chapters of Genesis – how fantastic to listen to the beautiful, poetic account of the creation of the world while walking through the TQ with all its signs of new life, new building and creativity.  Also, in one of those moments that can only happen in open-air church, as we listened to the account of the creation of wildlife and birds, a heron swooped down over the group – awesome!

3.  As we chatted we remembered that it was ‘Covenant Sunday’ for all our members from a Methodist background – the day in which they recommit themselves to God for the coming year using this most phenomenal, powerful prayer, which I thought was worth reprinting in full:

I am no longer my own, but yours.
put me to what you will,
rank me with whom you will;
put me to doing,
put me to suffering;
let me be employed for you
or laid aside for you,
exalted for you or brought low for you;
let me be full,
let me be empty;
let me have all things,
let me have nothing;
I freely and wholeheartedly yield
all things to your pleasure and disposal.

And now, glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
you are mine and I am yours.
So be it.
And the Covenant now made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven.

Well here it is – a new year and a new Dock movie…

If you’ve been kicking around Dock-world for a while, you’ll know that I always start the new year off by heading out into the TQ for a whole day armed only with my trusty video camera, no agenda and no appointments – to take a living snapshot of the state of play in the TQ at the start of each new year.  (If you want to catch up you can still watch the entries from 2010 and 2011.)

As one of my interviewees pointed out, that means that The Dock is making the first film series in the Titanic Quarter – Game Of Thrones is just jumping on the bandwagon!

So did I see anything through the howling gales?  Click to find out…

I made another resolution this week – much less important than the Wordlive one – but still…

After years of being a refusenik, I signed up on Twitter.  (Some of you who’ve heard me rant about Twitter in the past may now be checking if hell has indeed frozen over, or looking out your window for airborne pigs.)  While I love sharing my heart and hopes on this blog, I’ve found – especially over the last few months – that the pace of Dock-World is speeding up so much that I don’t have time to sit down and write a full blog – but I can manage 140 characters.

I’m brand-new to all this, so bear with me.  But if you’re interested in following, I seem to be registered as Chris Bennett@TheDockTQ.  (Hopefully that means something to you Twitterati…)

And I had to laugh when I spotted the Yahoo headline on the very day I signed up (alongside breaking news: Missing Cat Comes Home!)  Nice to know I’m in good company…

So I’m warming up by the fire after a gorgeous, cold, sunset-streaked Dock Walk.  We divided the walk in two today: walking out to Goliath (the crane – not the warrior.  He’s dead – stone to the forehead I believe), we reflected on 2011 – our standout memories, things to be thankful for, things we were happy to leave behind us…

Someone else thinking along similar lines put up this fantastic video on YouTube today:

On our way back from Goliath to mugs of steaming hot chocolate in the Premier Inn, we turned our attention to 2012 – the Big Year that lies ahead of us.  Today is of course the day that we all make New Year’s Resolutions, take stock, pause for breath and make a mental vow that Everything Will Be Different in the glorious blank page of the new year that lies before us.

It’s easy to poke fun at New Years Resolutions – often they fail – but, y’know, sometimes they work.  And so I’d like to put forward a resolution for Dock-World 2012.

Here it is: In The Dock we will be people of Wordlive.  In case you haven’t come across it, Wordlive is an online Bible-reading resource produced by Scripture Union.  You can find it here, or store the address in your favourites (www.wordlive.org), or click anytime on the link from The Dock homepage (under the ‘Connect’ drop-down menu).  You can access it online (where there’s a variety of options – ‘Classic’ for a straightforward Bible-reading-and-reflection, ‘Alt’ for a more left-brain multimedia/creative response, or ‘Lectio’ for a more thoughtful, meditative angle.)  You can get it as an app for smartphones.  Or you can do what I New-Years-Resolved last year – receive it as a daily podcast to your computer or phone – a little chunk of Bible, a reflection, time to pause, and a prayer, beautifully produced into a 5-minute podcast.

You know how I said that New Years Resolution sometimes work?  Well – and I take no personal credit for this – the Wordlive habit has worked for me in this past year.  I’ve been fed, challenged, surprised, moved, inspired, instructed and uplifted by those little 5-minute nuggets more times than I can count.  And – best of all – I haven’t been alone; the podcasts form the basis of our Dock Walk discussions, and so I’ve always had other people chewing over the same readings who can chat, question, share their perspective and their response.  (All the more important in a big community like the Dock network – where we are connected online but are often separated by geography and lifestyle.)  (And also a fantastic way to hold ourselves accountable – knowing that someone is going to be asking “So, how’s it going with Wordlive this week?” does wonders for the discipline!)

So here’s your New Year Dock Challenge – become a Wordlive person.  As the video above reminds us, this is a scary, complicated, wonderful world – and those Wordlive daily readings provide a fantastic way to grapple with some of the big questions and dilemmas of living in it.  You don’t have to always agree, understand or ‘click with’ the Scripture passage every day – but it’s amazing how often the Bible is utterly, profoundly relevant to the world of today.