The Dock charts new waters
The Dock initiative entered new waters on Friday 24th June with the launch of the Business Plan at an event attended by influential figures from the worlds of politics, business and church. The venue for the presentation and dinner was the Abercorn Suite at Titanic Quarter Limited Headquarters (the old Harland and Wolff Drawing Offices).
The Drawing Offices have seen the creation of many ambitious projects in their time - not least the Olympic Class liners - and The Dock is the latest visionary project to be launched there. Revd Chris Bennett, who was commissioned as Chaplain to The Titanic Quarter in November 2009, shared the Dock vision with the assembled guests.
"Where once we built ships, today we build communities," began Chris. "The emerging Titanic Quarter provides a 'blank page' - a chance for a new area of Belfast to try building a new type of community - and a new model of church."
He went on to explain the purpose of the Dock which is to provide a shared space, achieved through the permanent mooring of a boat within the Titanic Quarter area, on which a 'Shared Future' expression of church may be based.