ICMA is unique in Christendom. ICMA Chairman, Douglas B. Stevenson, made the statement at the opening of the Tenth ICMA World Conference. ICMA is unique not only for being a thriving ecumenical organisation, but for its ecumenical scope. Its 27 members include representatives of almost every one of the traditions in the Christian faith.

Ricardo shares the oplatek in Barcelona

Ecumenical celebrations of shared worship are made possible only by the growing awareness that schisms and divisions among us can be overcome and that the core of Christian faith, belief in God’s Christ, is shared by us all.

During the week of Christian unity, on January 24th, the Christian community in Barcelona prayed for Christian unity and for ecumenical working as we do in ICMA.  Catholics, Lutherans, Russian Orthodox and Rumanian Orthodox churches (the Anglicans could not attend this year) gathered to share the “oplatek”.

ICMA’s Regional Coordinator for the Black Sea, Middle East and Mediterranean Region, Ricardo Rodriguez Martos, writes:

The World Council of Churches suggested sharing the “oplatek”, like people do in Poland. Poland has a particular custom of sharing a special wafer, the “oplatek”, in people’s homes and churches at Christmas. Each person is given a wafer. People then share this wafer by breaking off a piece of another person’s wafer and eating it. In doing so, they convey their best wishes to each other.

This sharing of the wafer expresses unity, love, and forgiveness.

It was a very nice celebration, attended by volunteers, seafarers and people of the different denomination communities. After the celebration we had a picnic.

February 3rd, 2012 | Category: News | Comments Off

Showing off the Kandla Seafarers Centre to distinguished guests. Joseph Chacko is on the right of the photo.

The centre seeks to provide an environment for meeting the physical, social, practical and spiritual needs of seafarers and others who use the facilities of the Port of Kandla. It extends a warm welcome to seafarers to ease the pain of loneliness and isolation and to offer a respite from the hazards of the sea.

ICMA members work from secular seafarers centres like the one in Kandla in many ports of the world.

February 1st, 2012 | Category: News | Comments Off

The story of ICMA is the story of Christians working together to serve seafarers, whoever they may be, wherever we may find them.

The Port of Santos in Brazil is one such a place where seafarers find a home away from home, provided for them by the joint efforts of the Apostleship of the Sea and the Deutsche Seemannsmission.
The Reverend Adelar Schunke of DSM wrote to us that 7,564 seafarers signed the Stella Maris / DSM operated centre’s visitors’ book in 2011.  But it is estimated that around 30% of the seafarers don’t sign the book when they have little time to spare.
Reverend Schunke reports of buying a new little car with the help of his Mission and of renovation of the seafarers centre with ITF Seafarers Trust support.  The centre was re-furnished and they bought new computers. Adelar says:

Now we can offer a better and comfortable room and very good computers for all seafarers. Thanks a lot to ITF-ST for the great help.

Stella Maris are also investing in the centre’s renovation: they re-painted the whole building, replaced the fences and gates, installed a powerful air conditioner to battle the Brazilian heat and now also employ a round-the-clock security guard.  Besides being more welcoming, with seafarers now able to access the centre from a front entrance, the staff feel more secure.
During 2011 the German Seamen’s Mission, Santos was visited by Ms Susane Ramsauer, the spouse of the Minister for Traffic and Construction and Urban Development in the central government of Germany, Dr Peter Ramsauer.  Also during 2011, volunteers Lukas Müller and Sören Handke helped at the centre .
Reverend Schunke tells the story of a seafarer who suffered a stroke, lapsed into a coma and was repatriated to Germany but still has not recovered from the coma.  Adelar hosted the seafarer’s wife and daughter who came to be at his side.  And another seafarer was seriously injured and finally repatriated early this year after two months’ treatment. Nobody knows yet whether he will fully recover.  And Adelar says he presided at the wedding of a controller from the Hapag-Lloyd office in Santos. All in a day’s work for a port chaplain!

January 30th, 2012 | Category: Ministry | Comments Off

Ship visiting is at the heart of every ICMA members’ pastoral care of seafarers in every port of the world. To ensure the safety of ship visitors and a basic working knowledge of ports, the International Christian Maritime Association’s chaplains will attend the Ship Welfare Visitors Course in Hamburg.

The Ship Welfare Visitors Course is being held on Monday 30th & Tuesday 31st January. The course is hosted jointly by Ute Grosse Harmann from Apostleship of the Sea and the Deutsche Seemannsmission’s Krayenkamp Seemannsheim. The course will be led by Damian Crowley who is a Master Mariner. The course will be in English.

At the end of the second day there will be an evaluation to ensure that all particpants have understood the course.

Six students on the Ship Welfare Visitors Course will be from the Deutsche Seemannsmission, and five of them are from Duckdalben. Four students will be from Stella Maris Hamburg. Two of these participants from ICMA will train as instructors of the course enabling them to present the Ship Welfare Visitors Course in their own area. Ute Grosse Harmann from Stella Maris, and Peter Menten from Deutsche Seemannsmission, both from Hamburg, hope to qualify as instructors.

These ICMA personnel will be joined on the course by two students from the Norwegian Maritime Directorate, another from the Finnish Government Seaman’s Service and one person from the Swedish Government Seaman’s Service.

The course is jointly presented by ICMA and the International Committee for Seafarers Welfare. ICMA is a valued partner in delivering training and in hosting courses for the seafarers welfare sector.

January 28th, 2012 | Category: Ministry, News | Comments Off

Dominee Johan Smith, port chaplain in Cape Town, South Africa, and affiliated to ICMA member the Christian Seamans Organisation (CSO) writes a regular blog on the CSO website.  He writes:

We are playing cards. Everyone is enjoying the fact that I lose, because I have no idea how the game works. They barely understand my English, and we struggle to communicate, but the engineer speaks English and interprets where we lack understanding. We laugh and talk together.

They are all Muslims, without exception, and are from Pakistan.  There are thirteen of them. Following the recent events relating to the death of Osama Bin Ladin in their country, I felt apprehensive about my visit to the ship. Yet, after a month, we still play cards and talk regularly. Every time I leave the ship, they anxiously ask when I will return. When I arrive for my next visit, they are ready with something to eat and drink. They also plan activities for my visit.  In all honesty, I do not think any other crew has received me with more warmth during my duties over the past two years and a few months.

We talk also of our beliefs. We do so with sensitivity. It is an incongruous situation: they dressed in proper Muslim attire, and I the dominee from Christian Seamans Organisation.  The divide between us seems insurmountable.  Yet, somehow we get to share faith!

To see the website of the Christian Seamans Organisation and read Johan’s blog, CLICK HERE

January 25th, 2012 | Category: News | Comments Off

ICMA is at the forefront in responding to piracy.  ICMA’s members focus on professional first response.  But ICMA’s contribution is set to go beyond the first response to piracy, to participation in the academic debate on mental health.

Two years ago, the Seamen’s Church Institute of New York and New Jersey (SCI) appointed Clinical Researcher, Dr. Michael Stuart Garfinkle, to head its Piracy Trauma Study. The SCI initiative was groundbreaking. When SCI took this initiave in response to ICMA’s 2008 Resolution on Piracy, very little else was being done.  Since then, the maritime industry and the seafarers welfare sector has come together in response to piracy as never before on any other issue.  On the SCI website, Dr. Garfinkle writes:

Dr Michael Garfinkle speaks to seafarers on piracy

…the Maritime Piracy – Humanitarian Response Program (MPHRP)…headed by Mr. Peter Swift and advised by major partners in the maritime industry, as well as an advisory board that includes mental health, pastoral care and maritime professionals, … represents an important force in advancing the cause of protecting the emotional well being of men and women at sea. Their guide, which complements SCI’s (Post-Piracy Care for Seafarers Guidelines v3.0),… has already become an important resource for planning, assessing and caring for those who may be or have been affected by piracy. SCI commends them on their good work and looks forward to further collaboration.

Dr. Garfinkle took part in the workshop of health professionals which informed the MPHRP advisory board on mental health.  He adds:

SCI’s study on the psychological impact of piracy on seafarers will be formally presented at the annual meeting of the International Congress of Psychology in Cape Town, South Africa in late July 2012.

Garfinkle says that the SCI-study is ongoing and invited people affected by piracy to participate in the research.

SCI continues to interview seafarers impacted by piracy to learn from their individual stories about what helped and hindered their recovery. Anyone wishing to share piracy experiences on a confidential basis should contact me by telephone at

+1 212-349-9090

or by email at

mgarfinkle@seamenschurch.org.

ICMA’s members are in the frontline in addressing piracy.  Our contribution, while focused on first response, will eventually also inform the pool of academic knowledge on mental health.  We are, as ever, committed to the professional care of seafarers.

January 24th, 2012 | Category: News | Comments Off