All posts by Chris

Amaizen Angus

Things don’t stand still for long in Dock-World these days… the next big thing that’s happenin’ is the visit of Angus Buchan to the Odyssey this Friday and Saturday.

Angus is an internationally-renowned evangelist whose book Faith Like Potatoes has had a huge impact on countless lives.  I’ve never seen him in person myself, but by all accounts he’s a hugely engaging speaker – warm, humble, down-to-earth and with a great story to tell.

The Maizen Grace event at the Odyssey this weekend is a free-entrance, open-welcome affair.  As well as the man himself, there will be worship led by Ian Hannah and music from the Omagh-Waterford Peace Choir.  Doors open at 6, the event is at 7… spread the word!

If however you’d like to be a bit more involved behind the scenes, The Dock can help!  Yesterday I met with the guys organising the show (who had just come straight from meeting the First Minister and Deputy First Minister) to have a wee explore around the Odyssey and look into setting up a Prayer Room which could run throughout the event.

The room we found is the Harbour Room (just opposite Door 18 of the Arena) – and so the plan is to open the Prayer Room from 5pm until lights-out, both nights (Friday and Saturday) of the Angus event.  There will be a steady supply of coffee, comfy cushions, a great view out over the TQ, and the opportunity to pray – either aloud or quietly; in groups or on your own.  The idea is just to offer a safe space for prayer throughout the event – praying for the events happening across the corridor in the main auditorium, or for any other prayer requests which might arise.

So, over to you, Dock-World!  Doors open to the public at 6 – so from that time on, come and join us in the Harbour Room – for a minute or an hour, whatever suits you.  The whole event is a great chance for another faith-filled step in building peace here in NI, and it’s happening right in the heart of the city (and in the heart of Dock-World).  So let’s pray!

A message from Angus himself to whet your appetite:

The Queen’s Speech

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So we’re still here!  The sun rose, the rain fell, the Earth turned.  Which is something we normally take for granted, but has come of a bit of a disappointment to the followers of Harold Camping who was pretty sure that the world was going to end at 6pm yesterday.  Wonder how he felt as he ate his cornflakes this morning…?

To be absolutely honest, I wouldn’t want to miss a thing at the moment.  I’ve had such a great day!  Listening to ‘Breathe On Me, Breath of God” as we stood in the rushing wind and blazing sunshine at the head of the dock.  Memorising and discussing Romans 8:38-39 with a fantastic bunch of Dock Walkers.   Preaching to incredibly warm, welcoming Methodist congregations in Carnlough and Craigyhill this morning; preaching to an excited, engaged Presbyterian congregation in Glengormley tonight.  Cups of coffee and heart-to-hearts.  Moments with God, moments with friends, time with Susan, time alone.  A perfect Sunday.


And what a week!

From Larne to the TQ to Glengormley today, everyone was talking about the Queen’s Speech (and President McAleese’s response) with a little bit of a lump in their throats.  Can it really be true? – words of reconciliation and healing, spoken by people with the authority to say them – grounded in complex reality, but radiant with hope.  We’re living in days we barely dared to hope for a decade ago.  We’re seeing answers to prayers.

If you haven’t already read or watched them, can I encourage you to connect with the full text of both speeches – you can find the Queen’s here (or watch it here) and President McAleese’s here.

These beautiful speeches (both by women – significant?!) are perhaps the most powerful statement yet that we really are living in a new era; peace isn’t just a dream or a whisper; it is possible to recognise a wounded past without being bound to it; and together is better.  It resonates with the vision of the Dock, the Shared Medley, expressed with more more poetry and profundity than I can manage, worth hearing and speaking and repeating until we really start living it:

The lessons from the peace process are clear; whatever life throws at us, our individual responses will be all the stronger for working together and sharing the load.

Chris

Next Book Group

All you bibliophiles out there… after much debate and shifting around (all my fault! our old Book Group habit of meeting at Saturday lunchtime clashes with the walking tours!) we have a new time and a new book for the next Dock Book Group.

The time is 9:30am on Saturday 28th May in the luxury surroundings of the TQ Premier Inn – early enough to make a good head start on the day, but not painfully early! – and the Premier Inn does a good breakfast (or a top-notch cup of coffee)

The book, after much discussion, is Rob Bell’s newly-released Love Wins.  Could be a controversial choice – the blogosphere has been burning with debate even since before the book launched, many commentators feeling that Rob Bell had taken a step too far in his views.  But since it’s the book everyone’s talking about, the Dock Book Groupers felt it was good to have an informed view and actually read the thing! – some people appear to have written it off on the basis of the back cover blurb!

The book deals with Heaven, Hell, life, death and everything in between (quite a light read then) – so whether we end up agreeing or disagreeing with Rob’s conclusions, it will be a great chat!

You can find the book on Amazon here (and also watch a wee video from Rob giving an intro to his thinking) – it’s also available on Kindle and as an audiobook on iTunes.

Chris

Sow what?

More input into the Brain of Bennett this week: I’ve been at ‘Sow’, a church-planting conference.

As well as enjoying the teaching and the chat, I’ve been struck throughout the event by the image used on all the backgrounds and billboards – a picture of an open Bible surrounded by shoots of growth in fertile soil (you can just see it at the top left of the photo).  I cant stop looking at it!

That image speaks to me of ‘planting’ the truths of the Bible in fertile earth – not worrying as much about buildings (or boats), traditions or structures, as living out the hope and love and truth of God’s word.  Planting living faith rather than an institution.

It’s making me think a lot about the importance of the Wordlive connection in Dock-World. (If you’re new, Wordlive is a multimedia way of engaging with daily bible readings through a website or podcasts; it crops up often on these blogs (though possibly not often enough!) and it forms the core of our chat at the Dock Walks each week.). As there isn’t (at present…) a forum in the life of The Dock for a weekly sermon, Wordlive is the way that the Dock community centres itself around the Bible. Its a daily discipline in which we can encourage each other, hold each other accountable, help each other through questions and struggles with the difficult bits. 

That’s definitely been my experience over the last few weeks. Two weeks ago, the readings for the week were from the Old Testament book of Song of Songs – a beautiful but very obscure and confusing part of the Bible!  And last week the readings were from the new Testament book of Romans – huge meaty wodges of theology, often hard to grasp. The Wordlive readings were great for my discipline – forcing me to read and engage with parts of the Bible I might’ve been tempted to skip. And the podcasts and website did a fantastic job of drawing out clarity, understanding and application from even the most obscure passages.

But the real key was the conversation at the Dock Walk each Sunday as we discussed our questions from the past week. New perspectives and insights, welded to the background and grounding in the passage that was supplied by Wordlive day-by-day; I could feel doors opening up in my mind as the passage came to life like never before. I’m finding it to be an absolute revolution in my own love for Scripture.

But of course with Wordlive the initiative lies with you. I can’t make you connect to it from day-to-day (any more than I could make you listen to a sermon when I was a ‘regular minister’, I guess!). As Dock-world grows, I would love to keep trying this experiment – trying to find more and more venues, opportunities and settings to connect around the Wordlive readings.   To be, in the great phrase of one of the speakers at the conference, people who “live our normal everyday lives with the Bible open”.

Chris

The Week In Pictures

Another great week walking, talking and living life to the full in Dock-World!

First up we had a fantastic morning again on Saturday, sharing brunch with the neighbours in the apartments.  Some new faces, some returning customers, and (of course) lots of exceptionally fine cakes.

It was great to see Bishop Moses again at the Dock Walk on Sunday – another record number of walkers braved the howling wind to hear the news from Sudan, one year on.  It was really encouraging to hear all the positive progress that is happening – but as Moses reminded us, so much more needs to be done – and so much prayer is still required.

Moses is the youngest Bishop in the Anglican communion (and also probably the tallest) – it was really lovely to see him again.  And unlike our first meeting (when he was very offended that I had never heard of John Garang, and I was very offended that he had never heard of the Titanic!) at least this year we both knew what we were talking about!

 

 

In other news:  one more significant step (well I think it’s significant) towards the transformation of the TQ from building site to living city: the long wooden tunnel which used to run alongside the Metropolitan College was being dismantled this week – maybe doesn’t sound that exciting to you, but (as any Dock Walker will tell you) that tunnel seemed to last forever when you were stuck in the middle of it – now everything is out in the open air.  Hurrah!

 

 

This week also involved preparations for a major event on 31st May.  As anyone who has been on a Walking Tour will tell you (hopefully!), 31st May 1911 was a big date in Titanic’s diary: the launch of the shell of the ship from the slipways into the sea, metal touching seawater for the first time.  (Even though there are other important dates to mark Titanic’s final completion and her departure from Belfast, this is still the biggie – a ship’s launch date is recorded as the first time it hits water, not the day when everything is completed.)

To mark the centenary of this date in a few weeks time, there’s going to be a big ceremony both on land and water right down at the slipways, at the point where 880-odd feet of riveted steel slid into the water in 62 seconds!  I’m very honoured to have been asked to be involved, and various Dock-related figures will be taking part in the day.  This week I got to go on a ‘dry run’ (or a wet run I suppose) for the event with the organisers, on a Lagan Boat Tour out to the slipways and beyond.  It’s pretty much exactly a year since the last time I took that boat trip – fantastic to see how much of the skyline of the TQ has changed in that time!

 

And finally… not really TQ related – just a quick lucky shot to show that the wild weather of the past week (although it makes things “interesting” on the Walking Tours!) does have its moments of beauty!  A little reminder that the fingerprints of a mighty Creator are all around us in the outside world – it’s our responsibility just to get out there!

Chris