Latest Chaplain News

The Seafarers' Center has three new Chaplains. One is the Minister at Trinity Episcopal Church. He is being trained now by Chaplain Janet Henderson. He will most likely help relieve Father Yul of one of his visitation days boarding vessels. This will be a great help to Father Yul as visiting two days a week put a real strain on him in being able to meet vessels along with all of his other congregational duties. We have also have Mark Salmon, a Presbyterian Minister from Grace Presbyterian Church come on board. He is in training now with Janet. We also have a young lady (39 years young) from Island Baptist Church that will begin training soon. With the addition of these three new Chaplains we should be able to serve all vessels calling our Port, including the four outlying docks at Ingleside. We now have seven Chaplains boarding vessels and two taking care of all the paperwork and meeting the trucks waiting to deliver grain at the two Port elevators. Our Chaplains are members of the Baptist, Catholic, Episcopal, Christian and Presbyterian denominations. Would it not be nice if we could find Chaplains from the Greek Orthodox, Lutheran and Methodist denominations to really round out our Chaplain’s Ministry.

The Chaplains have purchased 800 coffee mugs with the Center’s Logo and the Port name on them to give to the Seamen at Christmastime.

Several women from different churches around town are baking cookies for the Chaplains to take with them when visiting vessels. More info on the names of the women and their church affiliations later.

The Chaplain’s are visiting more ships and seamen than ever before. They take magazines, cookies, phone cards and sim cards on board the vessels. This is especially important to the crews that do not receive Shore Passes. The Chaplain’s spend time talking to the crew and officers on the vessels. They pray with the seamen if the seamen request it, though they never push their religion or faith on anyone. They do carry religious publications, DVDs and Christian music CDs to leave with the seamen. They transport seamen to the Seafarers' Center, to banks and to shopping centers.

The Chaplain’s Ministry has added so much to our ability to reach out and touch the lives of the seamen visiting our Port. Because of them we are offering more services to more seamen than ever before. The Chaplain’s are truly an integral part of our goals of assisting the seamen.