Has anyone been watching Game Of Thrones?  The HBO fantasy series was mostly filmed in Northern Ireland (with brief excursions to Malta when they needed sunshine) – Magheramorne Quarry, Castle Ward and Tullymore Forest provided most of the exteriors, while all the interiors were shot in the Paint Hall movie studio in the heart of the Titanic Quarter.

I was watching initially just to play Spot The Location, but I got completely sucked into the story – a huge, labyrinthine web of double-crossing kingdoms and political intrigue, played out across a brutal wintry medieval landscape, with the hint that some ancient evil is stirring…  what’s not to love?!  It all really picked up pace in the most recent episodes; last week ended with an executioner’s axe hurtling towards the head of one of the most fascinating principal characters; roll credits; Susan and I looked at each other – surely they’re not killing him off, are they?  Next episode starts with the blood-soaked axe and the executioner holding the severed head aloft.  Oh, OK, they are then.

As that description indicated, it’s not for the faint-hearted; the week before it started I was telling all the Walking Tour groups and Dock Walkers to tune in for the first episode;  as I watched the episode – featuring gory death, incest, a little boy being chucked off a castle wall and lots of wenches – I made a mental note to footnote my recommendation with an 18 Certificate in future!

The great news is that Game Of Thrones has been green-lit for another series – good news not just for those of us now hooked on the drama, but also for the thousands of jobs it will bring to Northern Ireland as the crew return to the Paint Hall within the next few weeks.  (Great activity today as the sets were being built and prepared for the crew’s arrival.)   And it’s just great news for Northern Ireland that TV of this quality is being filmed here.  Some of the backdrops might look familiar, but there is absolutely nothing about Game Of Thrones that looks low-budget, parochial, small scale – it is epic in every sense of the word, and competes with TV made anywhere else in the world.

So here in Northern Ireland we’re now making world-class TV, preparing to open a world-class Titanic visitor attraction, and in the TQ building the largest city redevelopment project in Europe.  We’re not a provincial backwater any more; we’re rediscovering some of that spirit that made us the world’s biggest and best shipbuilders a century ago.  Which makes it all the more frustrating when the minority of people still stuck in the past try to put the brakes on all this progress; I’ve been finishing off this blog post watching the news about the riots in East Belfast last night – a crushing reminder that even while we’re surrounded by all these signs of new hope and bold enterprise, there are those who can’t stop re-enacting the clueless, pointless cycle of violence.

We’re not building that ugly, tit-for-tat world any more.  We’re living in a Northern Ireland which is home to multi-million pound TV shows and international golfing heroes, a city which is rooted in its past but running towards a new future.  Let’s not lose hold of that hope.

A nice big pic to start off with today, as it contains lots of carefully-placed ingredients!

First up of course you can see another fantastic bunch of people on the Dock Walk yesterday – lots of different backgrounds and great chat.  Behind them you can see a perfect mixture of old and new: the brick building to the left of the picture is the old Drawing Office, the magnificent building where Titanic was designed.  Towards the right of the picture you can see on the billboard the artist’s impression of the new Titanic Belfast visitor attraction – the visionary concept which was unveiled a few years ago.  And in the middle you can see that the concept is fast becoming a reality.

It all ties very neatly into Dock-World as this week marks another big step on the road of the Dock vision becoming reality.  On Friday evening we’ll be hosting a posh dinner in the Drawing Office to launch the Dock Business Plan to a gathering of influential politicians, business leaders and senior church figures.  Like the gleaming cladding being added to Titanic Belfast (that’s the stuff at the very top right of the pic), it’s another building block on the way to our goal – a boat based in the heart of the TQ, serving as a chaplaincy sofa to build community, faith and life in the Titanic Quarter.   Like the Titanic Belfast building, it’s a goal which not long ago was just a dream, but is fast becoming physical reality.  (Although, as we’re reminded by the cranes in the distance and the orange barrier in the foreground, it’s a work in progress with lots still to do.)  So when this photo was taken, we had just stopped to pray for the event on Friday and all the further progress which we hope will spring from it – and your prayers would be hugely appreciated too.

Speaking of progress and change, Wordlive last week took us through the story of the Damascus Road conversion of Saul (the militant persecutor of the early church) to Paul (its greatest evangelist and advocate) – but we were really interested in the character of Ananias, the guy who felt a call from God to approach Saul and pray with him immediately after his conversion experience.  Putting ourselves back in the middle of the story, we realised that Ananias might have felt a bit like a persecuted inhabitant of Nazi Germany being asked to go and talk to Hitler…  So even though we only meet him for a couple of verses, Ananias is one of those great, inspiring characters from the early church – he was open enough to hear God’s voice, and then obedient enough to actually do what was being asked of him.  What a role model!

Meeting in Ikea today (for the 99p cooked breakfast – what’s not to like?) reminded me that a few days ago on the Walking Tours I met one of the key people behind the recent Ikea refit.

I wish I could tell you his name, but it was complicated and German and so (as with all complicated names) left my brain approx 0.2 seconds after entering it.  What I can tell you is that he was friendly, enthusiastic, really enjoying his time in Belfast, and living for 6 weeks in the Arc apartments in the Titanic Quarter.  Apparently Ikea send him to all different parts of its empire – he’s off to Dublin next, then to Milton Keynes, then anywhere in Europe – to oversee the remodelling of their store whenever a new interior display is needed.

Chatting to Frzgrbbllj (let’s call him Frzgrbbllj for the sake of argument) made me think about the incredible opportunities open to The Dock – and the need to think seriously about what this ‘Chaplaincy’ role looks like.  Most local churches operate on the assumption that the people they connect with have moved into the area and will be around for a few years, or decades, or the rest of their lives.  The Dibley cliche is of a church community made up of people who have always been local, and will always be local.

The Titanic Quarter community seems to be different.  Frzgrbbllj was there for 6 weeks.  Many business contracts down in the Science Park are for a few months, many Citibank contracts are for a year.  The movie studios are operational for a couple of months at a time (the next series of Game Of Thrones is due to start shooting any day).  The Metropolitan College students will be connecting with the TQ for a brief window of their lives.  And many millions will be visiting for just one day – to see Titanic Belfast, visit the Pump House, check out the Public Records Office or (if they know what’s good for them) do the Titanic Walking Tour.

That doesn’t for one minute mean that the TQ can’t be a genuine community.  We all long to connect, to relate.  I’m loving the brilliant, genuine, inspiring people I’m meeting on the walking tours, or over a glass of mulled wine or a cup of coffee at the Meet The Neighbours events.  The chat is mighty.  I’ve met people from all over the world – and new people from just down the road.  It doesn’t look like a traditional community, where everyone knows each other, but it is a tremendously invigorating, urban, diverse way to connect.  Whether briefly or not, we share the fact that we’re part of this new part of Belfast city, that we’re watching renewal in action, that we have a common link to the Boat that Sank.  We’re the Titanic Tribe.

And it’s in that environment that the idea of being a Chaplain rather than a Minister or Pastor or Vicar seems to work so well.  Someone to make the links, to start the conversation, to put the kettle on.  Tribes need connection points.  Something like, I don’t know, a lovely old boat with a coffee shop run by Chaplains from all sorts of different backgrounds…  Hey, there’s an idea…

Anyone else a fan of the brilliant old newspaper strip Calvin and Hobbes?  Calvin’s dad was always forcing the family to enjoy themselves outside, whatever the weather…

So if Calvin’s dad had joined us for the Dock Walk on its first birthday, he definitely would’ve been bug-free… It flipping poured!  Which was kinda neat – as the last time the rain fell for the whole length of the Dock Walk was right back on Day One, exactly a year ago!

Starting from this birthday walk I’d love to share a bit more with you on this blog about the conversations we had out in the wilds of the TQ, and what we’ve been learning together each week as we engage with the Wordlive bible readings – and to keep encouraging you to click on to Wordlive yourself and let these fantastic, complex readings change and challenge you.

Last week the readings took us through the story of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, facing death from a barrage of stones thrown by a mob – a mob whom Stephen forgave with his dying breath.   It’s a story that shows the very worst we can be – the violence that takes hold when people succumb to hate, fanaticism and fear – and also the very best we can be – Stephen shows an almost Christlike assurance as he faces his killers.

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