The Slipway Pilgrimage Walks have always been one of my absolute favourite aspects of Dock Life – I never, ever fail to be moved and inspired every single time we walk the footprint of Titanic and tell some of the stories of those who built her and sailed on her.

The walks are going monthly for the Winter period – provisionally on the last Sunday of each month (although if there’s any break to the pattern you’ll find out about it here, as always!)

Which means that the Pilgrimage Walk is taking place tomorrow (Sun 29th) at 2pm, meeting in the atrium of Titanic Belfast.  As always it is free of charge and open to all – if you haven’t had a chance to be get down to one of the walks yet – maybe now is the time (and maybe the sunshine will hold!)

(And if you’re thinking of Dock Walking tomorrow – the Slipway Pilgrimage will be the main part of our walk – followed of course by a cuppa at The Dock!)

Well actually, it’s four signs… the new snazzy swing-stand signs for The Dock have arrived, to entice you in to eat… relax… surf… or be inspired:

And if you’re walking in the other direction, you get a bit more detail.  My favourite is ‘C’mon on in and rest yer wee legs’… I’m just looking forward to the all looks of baffled incomprehension from non-Belfastians!

Thanks as always to Jeremy at The Big Wooden Box for his sterling work!

Honestly, you wait all your life for one Chaplain… and then six turn up at once!

Those of you who have been following the Dock project from the start – through days of coffeestorming, deckchair cafes, boat-hunting expeditions and meanwhile projects – will know that from the very beginning we had a vision to be a new kind of church for this new area and new era of Belfast – one in which we left our divisions and silos in the past.

Well I am profoundly thankful to be able to report that as of this month, The Dock now involves Chaplains from six different traditions – even more than I might have dared to dream.  Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Presbyterian, Congregational, Nazarene – or as they prefer to be known (because who boxes people up like that any more?), Chris, Karen, Finian, Brian, Wesley and Richard.  Call into Dock Cafe any day and you will bump into one of them, serving your coffee, lurking back at Doris the Dock Dishwasher, or just mooching around the tables enjoying the craic.

Just as a little reminder of the days in which this all seemed like such a far-off dream… here’s an old Dock Movie from early 2010 where you can see the idea starting to take form.

Hopefully my movie-making abilities have developed in those 3 years (check out those blurry zooms, mmm!) – but how amazing to look back and see how the vision developed – sometimes slowly, sometimes frustratingly, two-steps-forward-and-one-step-back – from a concept to a community.

Bishops are all over the news this weekend… well, one in particular: the fantastic news that Pat Story is to become the first female Bishop in the C of I.  Couldn’t happen to a better person!

To celebrate, we had our very own Bishop at The Dock this weekend: Bishop Harold (who is responsible for having the first spark of the idea of The Dock many moons ago) did a stint volunteering behind the coffee bar.

An evil part of me really enjoyed bossing him around for a couple of hours – making him clean the tables and collect the dirty dishes.  Mwahahaha!  And I can report on his volunteer evaluation: Timekeeping – Poor.  Cuppa-making abilities: satisfactory.  Being a Bishop: brilliant.

PS – no snarky comments about our aprons.  Aprons are cool.

Doesn’t seem long since we last cleared the board for Dock customers to answer that question which has occupied the finest minds (and some that are just OK) for millennia: What Is The Dock?

Alongside a few examples (grrr) of people just using the board to write their name (yes, well done, you can spell your name), and a rather scary face (which I think might’ve been drawn by Jorge, the ‘Face From Space’ artist) – here are a few of the more striking comments this time around:

What is The Dock? – Just great… Friendly and loving… Just what we need – decency and service to others… Adorable… An asset… Just what Belfast needed… This place deserves a big hug… What the world should be more like… Love this wee place… Epic… The shizzle… Serene… Relaxing… Funny…just what the McCords needed…

Cool, eh?  I especially love ‘What the world should be more like’.

The Dock ethos is also the subject of a new flyer in the cafe – a way of letting all the new students at the Met (hello, hungry hordes!) know who we are and what we’re about: