Well, what a busy day – I’ve just come from a meeting of the Dock Directors, following a get-together of the Wee Tram Directors, which came after a brainstorming session with the Dock Ops Team, and now I’m just grabbing a quick coffee as the Dock Chaplains (a motley bunch if ever there was one) arrive for our monthly meet-up…  Safe to say that 2016 is well and truly underway!

For anyone else zooming around in the flurry of activity of the first week of a new year, here’s a little snatch of poetry that had a huge impact on me over the Christmas holidays – especially those lovely days just after Christmas, spent curled up with the cat in front of a blazing fire.  The full poem (which is called Pax by DH Lawrence) is well worth seeking out:

So, onwards with 2016 – and a few dates for your diary and news of upcoming events at The Dock:

Saturday Nights at The Dock…
We’ve decided to mess with the days of the week this year: Sundays have become Saturdays in Dock-World and we’ll now hold our monthly service of praise and prayer on the first Saturday of each month at 5:30pm.  It was great to see all the gang on the first Saturday of the new year – and whether you joined us for our twilight walk (on an unexpectedly gorgeous wintery afternoon) or later in Dock Cafe, hopefully you enjoyed starting the year with a  burst of fellowship and inspiration as much as I did!

Wednesday Nights at The Dock…
As well as our monthly Saturday nights, we’ve now got a brand new gathering every Wednesday in Dock Cafe from 6:30pm onwards.  The cafe will be open each Wednesday evening with coffee, tea and even a wee bite to eat on the menu – and for anyone who would like to chat, ask questions about faith, or receive prayer for anything at all, there’ll be a team here in the cafe very happy to talk to you!

And a date for your diary…
Keep the evening of Sunday 21st February free for another first in Dock-World – our first ever Dock Cafe Comedy Night with the superb Andy Kind – if the start of the year and the dark nights are leaving you feeling bit gloomy – this will cheer you right up!

What a fantastic Christmassy Saturday at A Titanic Christmas at the weekend!

– from lovely bustling Christmas markets, packed-full of homemade treats en route to many a stocking:

-to raising the roof singing carols by candlelight:

-to watching Santa and the elves make their heart-stopping descent down the ARC apartments:

-and gathering in the grotto for some Christmas treats:

Massive thanks to the musicians, marketeers and (of course) Santa and the elves for a Christmas night to remember!

Christmas just isn’t Christmas until you’ve seen Santa abseiling down the ARC apartments, sung carols by candlelight, and joined the DOCK gang for our annual Christmas extravaganza!

This year A Titanic Christmas will be on Saturday 12th December at Dock Market – gathering from 4pm onwards for market-browsing and mulled-wine-sipping (although Dock Market is open all day from 11am if you’d like to shop for some fabulous unique home-made pressies), and then moving outside under the stars at 5pm (if it’s nice!) for carols by candlelight and switching on the ARC Christmas lights.

Then (if our singing is sufficiently beautiful to summon him) Santa will abseil down the ARC with some Christmas treats for the kids.

Here are a few pics of previous Titanic Christmases to whet your appetite…

Singing carols by candlelight in The DOCK Cafe

Singing carols by candlelight in The DOCK Cafe

See you there or you’re a cotton-headed ninnymuggins!

In the New Year we’re gonna try a little experiment in Dock World.  (Yes, another one).

We’re going to try moving our monthly Sunday Nights at the Dock, (when we get together on the first Sunday of each month for some space to worship, pray and share stories with each other) to Saturday nights rather than Sundays.

The name for this endeavour – after a lot of deep thought and agonised soul-searching – will be: Saturday Nights at the Dock

So from the start of 2016, on the first Saturday of each month, usual cafe business on a Saturday afternoon will just slide and melt naturally into our time of telling stories, fellowship and prayer – the coffee and chat will just keep flowing.  There will be a ‘start time’ of 6pm when people who just want a cup of coffee can leave, or people who just want to come for the service can arrive – but the idea is that it becomes a natural extension of daily cafe life rather than being a ‘special’ thing that we only do on occasional Sundays.

So that means that this coming Sunday  (6th Dec) may be our last Sunday Night at the Dock – meeting as always at 6pm in Dock Cafe with the usual mix of great coffee, great conversation, and space to be thankful, be still and be inspired.

As always in Dock-World, it’s amazing to look back over just a short space of time and realise how much we have to be thankful for.  From our early days meeting every month on board SS Nomadic:

– before moving into our current location in Dock Cafe:

– hearing from everyone from mayors to missionaries to TV news reporters:

– it’s been amazing… and now we’re ready for the next chapter!

There’s a new next-door neighbour right outside the door of Dock Cafe – the new Titanic Quarter Coca Cola Zero Belfast Bikes Dock (to give it’s full title) – or – as I henceforth decree it should be named:

The Dock Dock

The Belfast Bikes scheme has been one of the runaway successes of this past year – everywhere you go in Belfast you can see someone pottering past on one of the cool retro bikes.  Certainly on the Wee Tram we saw loads of passengers jump off at the Bike Dock at the front of the Odyssey (right beside the tram stop) to continue their journey into Belfast on two wheels.

Apparently the Odyssey Bike Dock was by far the busiest of the entire scheme – so it’s great that the TQ guys have added another Bike Dock closer to Dock Cafe, SS Nomadic, Titanic Belfast and the Belfast Met.

Cyclists have always been a huge part of the mix of customers in Dock Cafe and Dock Market – and now there’s even less excuse for arriving at the Dock on four wheels rather than two!