Well, here it is in action – a few pics taken by Dock Chaplain Wesley of the very first Church On A Boat in the Titanic Quarter:

And of course no Dock event would be complete without heading across from the starlit Nomadic to a bustling Dock Cafe for a cuppa:

And rather than listen to me blather on about it, here’s a description of the service from the blog of Fr Martin, one of the people who squeezed in to our cosy gathering:

This weekend, I worshipped on SS Nomadic in a service led by one of the Dock Church chaplains, Rev Chris Bennett from the Church of Ireland. This was particularly special because this was the first of what will be a monthly service. It certainly seemed to catch the imagination and additional seats were required to accommodate all who attended. There was a wide range of people in age and denomination present. Chris told us this was the first time that an organised service had ever taken place in the Titanic Quarter.

To set the scene, Chris gave a brief history of SS Nomadic and some background to the Dock Church including his story of the parsnip! [Members of Grosvenor] led the singing. We began with “Amazing Grace” and then we had a short time of quiet prayer before Chris prayed a spontaneous prayer.

Chris then gave us more background to the Dock Church including the search for a boat and all the frustrations and disappointment that were part of his story.

Chris asked the question what was God doing and saying in all this?   He also talked to us about the building of church through the Dock walks. He also told us about the creation of the Dock Cafe. In his reflection, Chris acknowledged the disappointment of “rusty boats”, “closed doors” and not being able to see an overall meaning of what was happening. He pointed to the nearby artwork of the sand picture of a 6 year old girl from Belfast called “Wish”.

Chris shared with us how it was in the course of a conversation in the Dock café that he was asked would you like to run a church service on the Nomadic? He described it as the fulfilment of a dream and the end of all the frustration.   The message we were encouraged to take from all this is that God knows what he is doing in our lives and can lead us to much more than we could have dared to ask.

Sometimes in our lives we really need perspective and also to trust God until the picture becomes clear – which may be on this side of grave or the next. We then sang: “it is well with my soul”.

Chris then invited three of the chaplains to share some thoughts on scripture. Br Finian, a Christian brother, then took the stage (or stairs). He referred to Noah’s ark and the boat on which Christ sailed. Richard Porter from the Church of the Nazarene shared the story of the storm which Jesus calmed.  Rev Wesley Ellis referred to the great catch of fish in John 21.

Chris then told us about the monthly plan of the “medley of voices” sharing on scripture and his hope that in those voices we would hear God’s voice.

The floor was then left open for people to pray, we were asked to “keep it snappy”.  There were prayers for the city, for courage, in gratitude for unity, for reaching out, for the Dock, for people experiencing storms in our world including Syria and those who were experiencing “rusty boats, closed doors and not being able to see the pattern”. We then prayed the “Our Father” and sang the final hymn – “Be Thou my vision”.

Where: On board SS Nomadic
(in ‘2nd Class Upper’ to be precise)

When: Sunday 3rd November at 6pm
(and thereafter on the first Sunday of every month)

If you’ve been following the story of The Dock from the start, you’ll know that we could never quite shake this quirky idea that there would be something fitting about gathering for Church in the Titanic Quarter on a boat.

You’ll maybe remember that some old barges and light-ships were briefly under consideration… but we could scarcely have dared to dream that a ship as beautiful, as historic and iconic as SS Nomadic would ever become our venue… Could we?

Never underestimate what is possible in the Titanic Quarter! The crew of the Nomadic are flinging open the doors on the first Sunday evening of each month, and the Dock chaplaincy team (in all its wonderful variety) will be there to lead the service. (And so the welcome is to everyone, of every tradition and background – the services will not ‘belong’ to any one denomination – which was the Dock vision from the very start.)

There will be old hymns… new insights… a chance to meet the neighbours and celebrate Life In The Titanic Quarter, all snug between the decks of this beautiful ship.

So it is with great joy that I can finally say… all aboard!

Tonight’s the night… the clocks go back, an extra hour in bed, darkness descends upon our evenings, the smell of woodsmoke fills the icy air and Winter Is Here…

And it felt like the perfect First Day Of Winter in Dock Cafe today too – a cosy, dark day, rain streaming down the windows and the cafe lights illuminating a series of heartwarming scenes of people finding a cosy, joyful place to while away a rainy day.

Embarking on a jigsaw… or watching the umbrella-covered world go by… or getting stuck into Scrabble… or building a castle…

Or knitting and nattering… or taking part in Tim’s photography workshop… or catching up with family… or embarking on another jigsaw…

And then at the end of a gloomy day – a shaft of glorious winter sunshine filled the cafe with golden light, just as we were getting ready to close the doors.  Which makes the perfect image with which to announce that, as of this week, The Dock is following The Clock and altering its times a little for the Winter months:

Volunteers make the world go round… Well that’s certainly true in Dock-World at any rate!

The Dock is now the profoundly proud, grateful and slightly surprised owner of a team of more than thirty fantastic volunteers who give from a couple of hours to a day per week – doing everything from coffee to dishes to cleaning to chatting, and a million other jobs in between.  They’re as enthusiastic about cleaning out Kate and Leo’s fish tank, as talking up Belfast to a tourist, or advising a customer on which Suki Tea to try.  They are awesome.

So last Saturday we closed the doors for one day only (the sad little faces of denied customers pressing their noses against the glass were heartbreaking – but they SHOULD’VE READ THE BLOG!) to hold a Volunteer Training Day – which was also a great excuse to all get to know each other and enjoy a bit of craic.

We were trained in Fire Safety by Robert – as you can see, Tegan is now a force to be reckoned with when brandishing a fire extinguisher.  Hopefully any future fire drill in The Dock won’t look like this:

And Oscar, the man behind Suki Tea, gave us a tea-tasting demonstration and introduced us to some new flavours – a brilliant experience and one which made me very proud that we’re supporting, in our small way, this brilliant, ethical local company:

As you can see behind Oscar in the pic, we have a new temporary display on the back wall of Dock Cafe – specially commissioned by the team at the Festival At Queens to show the work and love that went into the creation of Wish (aka the Face From Space.  I’m not giving up.)

Call in and have a look soon – the photography on display in Dock Cafe is, I think, the best way to see a variety of perspectives of The Face from the air (short of chartering a helicopter and flying above it yourself).

Some people who did get to see Wish from above were the groups of Bishops and church leaders from Glasgow, Liverpool and Hong Kong who’ve called in to the cafe over the last few days to chat about The Dock and go on a tour around the Titanic Quarter.  (I’ve tried not to overuse the phrase “As I was saying to the Archbishop of Hong Kong the other day…” ever since – is once an hour too much?)

And it was great to find out that even Archbishops are unable to walk the Titanic Slipways without instinctively adopting the ‘Titanic posture’!

An emotional moment (but NO TEARS) in The Dock this week as we said our farewells to Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada, the wonderful, nutty artist who has practically taken up residence in The Dock for the last 2 months while he was overseeing construction of the ‘Wish’ land-art project on the huge stretch of grass beside SS Nomadic.

A few weeks ago I posted a video of the work-in-progess – and now you can see a re-edited version put together by the gang at the Queens Festival, with lots more pics and interviews:

And after a monumental amount of hard work (pretty much none by me, I hasten to add), the finished project has been revealed:

I liked the idea as soon as Jorge explained it to us all those months ago – but the finished piece is so much more than I’d expected.  What a profound, wonderful work of art – the innocent, hopeful, quizzical smile of a little girl greeting those flying into Belfast city – maybe expecting to find a city full of grim or angry faces.  Jorge won’t tell us who she is or where she comes from – she could live down the street from any of us, and she expresses all our hopes for a brighter future.

The piece also resonates with me from a Christian point of view.  St Paul memorably wrote to the Corinthians: Now we see in a glass darkly…Then, face to face.  All the patterns and questions and doubts in our lives, which make no sense now, will one day become clear in God’s presence – just as the apparently random lines of earth and sand make sense – even more, become beautiful – in the helicopter view.  There’s no way of knowing what the finished picture will look like when we’re at ground level – we just keep digging and working with the pegs and markers we’ve got.

As winter progresses, the face will fade; snow will fall, grass will grow, erosion will take its course.  It’s all part of Jorge’s plan: a reminder that things change, evolve and fade.  He hasn’t sculpted a monument to stand in Belfast for all time: he has created something beautiful and profound for our present moment, this point in our story.  I love it.

Oh and PS – you know I started the campaign for the nickname ‘The Face From Space’ to go along with the Belfast trend – Nuala With the Hula, the Balls At The Falls…  Well it’s actually catching on!  Check out here and here to see more amazing aerial photos – and to see other people using the nickname!  Result!