Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday is the ultimate day of Good News.  So today I’d like to share a couple of links to Good News stories that caught my eye over the last wee while.

The first is a Good News story for Northern Ireland – a little reminder (and we do need them from time to time) of just how much has changed over the last decade, and how we are living in a vastly more hopeful era.  Check it out here.

The second is a really sweet story involving a letter to God, a little girl, and the Archbishop of Canterbury – you can read it here.

The third is a brilliant video by Rend Collective Experiment (if you haven’t heard of them check out their wholeheartedly-recommended album here), telling the Christian story – and especially the Easter story – in a simple, fresh but very moving way:

Happy Easter!

Good Friday

I am absolutely utterly convinced that this ‘Shared Medley’ living is the way life is meant to be.  I’ve had the best week!

I’ve connected with Holy Week services in my own denomination (Church of Ireland) and also in a new Shared Medley context (St Oliver Plunkett’s Parish in West Belfast).  I’ve enjoyed being up front preaching; I’ve enjoyed being a congregation member in the pews; I’ve loved following the Holy Week narrative through Wordlive.  I’ve met people for coffee in places which are almost becoming like a familiar second home (like the fab coffee lounge in the TQ Premier Inn) and in places that are brand-new (like the swish new Public Records Office, now located in the Titanic Quarter – pictures below).

I’ve met old and new faces.  I’ve talked Dock with tourists, priests, chaplains, businessmen, sailors, lawyers, directors and students.  I started Wednesday by broadcasting live to (an enthralled?) nation on Radio Ulster.  I started today with a coffee with co-Chaplain Karen, to remind me that I’m not on my own any more. I had a fantastic day today as a Titanic Walking Tour guide (including, in this afternoon’s tour, the great honour of leading the biggest-ever group to turn up for a Titanic Walking Tour – 45 of them! – pictured right)  In short I am out of my comfort zone, doing things and meeting people and taking chances and making contacts that never would’ve crossed my path if I’d stayed in the safe confines of my own denomination and community – and it is the best thing ever!

Today I want to leave you with a striking story told in Fr Martin’s sermon from the service I attended at St Oliver Plunkett’s.  Its a story he first heard on last week’s Sunday Sequence (and if you’re reading this before Easter Day, you can still hear the story on iPlayer here – it’s from 5:50-10:15 in the programme), from a new book called The Band Played On, looking at the eight extraordinary musicians on board the Titanic who chose to sacrifice their own lives and continue playing right until the fateful moment when the ship sank.  Eyewitness reports recall that they played uplifting, lively music to keep spirits up during the frantic evacuation of the lifeboats, before concluding with the hymn Nearer My God To Thee in the ship’s final moments.

The incredible message for The Dock is that this band was the very definition of the ‘Shared Medley’ – composed of a mixture of Catholics, Congregationalists, Anglicans and Methodists.  The impact that their sacrifice and service made on the survivors was one of the first stories to emerge in the papers in the days following the tragedy, and was never forgotten.  (Even today, Nearer My God To Thee is often first and foremost associated with the Titanic.)  They did something profound, heroic and immensely powerful.  And they did it from a shared basis – not letting any of their differences of background or denomination get in the way of the important, beautiful thing they were doing.

What a challenge.

The big book and the little book

Have you tried Wordlive yet?

Wordlive is a website which offers all sorts of creative ways to get a daily dose of Bible (you can find it at www.wordlive.org, or it’s always linked under the ‘Connect’ tab on the Dock homepage).  It’s always been a big part of Dock-world (our Dock Walk every week follows up on the previous week’s Wordlive readings) and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Their website has recently had a revamp and it’s now better than ever!  There’s no longer any need for lots of mouse-clicks to navigate through the site: now you make a simple choice between two styles – classic and ‘alt’ – and then everything’s on one page.  Classic is the choice for people who like to read the passage with some notes, thoughts, and background info; while ‘Alt’ is for people who prefer more creative video clips, artwork, and multimedia to illustrate the passage.

Or you can download the podcast (either from the site or through iTunes) and enjoy a little 5-minute nugget of Bible on your headphones wherever you are throughout the day.  This is becoming my favourite way to connect with the Bible – out in the open air, walking through Creation while learning more about the Creator.  John Ortberg has a great phrase for it – he calls creation the “big book” of God’s revelation, and the Bible the “little book” – so he recommends “experiencing the little book in the middle of the big book”.  So do I!

If you haven’t tried Wordlive before, maybe Holy Week is a good time.  The Dock is a bit unusual among churches I’ve known in that it doesn’t have a routine of Holy Week services to follow the journey to the cross, betrayal, arrest, crucifixion, Good Friday and then the great reversal of Easter Sunday.  Following and feeling the sweep of that narrative is a good thing – so even though there are no formal services throughout the week, it’s good to know that Dockers are connecting with the story through Wordlive.  In our separate places, but together as a Dock community, we’re following along with the tragic Judas, the brave but fallible Peter, the conflicted Pontius Pilate, the confused and broken disciples, and the extraordinary figure of Jesus at the centre of it all, suffering such appalling injustice with a grace that still astounds.

It’s maybe a new way of following the story – but the great thing is that the story itself is old, eternal but also brand new and freshly-relevant each year.  So however, wherever – whether through headphones, podcasts, websites, private study or public worship – don’t let this Holy Week pass by without spending some time with the greatest story ever told.

HUGE NEWS!

1 Comment

It has been a MASSIVE week in Dock-World.  All of a sudden, long-planned hopes are exploding into life – so this blog post contains not one, not two, but THREE Revelations in the life of Dock – any one of which on its own might well be the most exciting thing to happen all year – but when all three of them happen within a few days…! Even my usually plentiful superlatives are exhausted.

 

Yesterday, 14th April 2011, was a red-letter day: as well as being the 99th anniversary of Titanic hitting the iceberg (not an omen, honest) it was the first meeting of the Dock Board of Directors (sadly minus Michelle, who was stranded in Dubrovnik – which has to count as one of the more impressive excuses I’ve ever heard!)  This group – a year in the making! – allows ‘The Dock’ to be constituted as a limited company – and as the Board includes people from all sorts of denominational backgrounds, the company genuinely is the ‘Shared Medley’ that we’ve been hoping and praying towards from the start.  It’s this company that can now start fundraising for The Dock Boat – and they do so from the solid basis of a professional, diverse and exciting core team of Directors at the helm.  Which means that The Dock is no longer a dream, or a hope, or a concept, or a bright idea in my head – The Dock Exists!

 

Today, 15th April 2011, as well as being the 99th anniversary of the Titanic sinking (not an omen, honest) was my first day as a Titanic Walking Tour Guide (as you can spot from the snazzy uniform).   I loved it!  You’ve heard me extol the virtues of Colin’s walking tours many times on this website – well now I get to be part of showing visitors around this incredible part of Belfast, into evocative old nooks and crannies like the Drawing Office and the Pump House, and out into the huge, breathtaking vistas of the slipways and the Thompson Dock.

A tiny little bit of nerves with my first group this morning was dispelled by a genuinely brilliant bunch of people (pictured right) who were a pleasure to lead – thanks guys!

In case you’re wondering why a Chaplain should be tramping around leading Walking Tours, part of the Dock project has always been to keep looking out for creative ways to part-fund the post of Chaplain to the Titanic Quarter. You’ll remember that last year I was providing some clergy cover in Carrowdore and Millisle on that basis – and this is the latest idea – with the added benefit that I love walking, I love the Titanic Quarter, I love meeting new people and I love wearing the snazzy red jacket!

Speaking of Chaplains:

 

Sunday 17th April is the next big date for your diary.  It’s the day when I truly, genuinely stop being all by myself in the Titanic Quarter and welcome another Chaplain onto the team – which will hopefully continue to grow and diversify from here.  So come along to the Dock Walk at 3:33pm at the Odyssey Streat and meet Karen – who, as well as being the minister of Sydenham Methodist church, will now also be a Chaplain to the Titanic Quarter and part of the Shared Medley team of people living out the hope, love and unity of the Christian faith in the TQ.