The Mission to Seafarers - Australia
Welcome
The Mission to Seafarers in Australia
is a Christian organization that for 150 years has cared for
seafarers of all nationalities visiting our ports. We do our very
best to welcome and help as many as possible of the
150,000 overseas seafarers who visit annually.
We have a presence in 27 of Australia's major ports and usually
carry out our service from a seafaring centre located in or near
the port. See our "Locations" page to find out where we get
involved around the nation.
The Australian Council for the Mission to Seafarers supports and encourages the efforts of each one of our dedicated centres.
The Mission to Seafarers family is
made up of many chaplains and volunteers dedicated to providing
for the seafarer - a safe and welcoming 'home away from home' - for the short time the seafarer is on Australian soil.
The hardworking and often lonely seafarer may have a wide variety of needs and our volunteers always strive to meet those needs,
whether they be physical, moral or spiritual or simply helping
them contact their loved ones in far away countries that they
have not seen for months on end.
Our organisation - known throughout the world as the "Flying
Angel" - considers it a great privilege and joy to be a loyal and
constant friend to the world's seafarers who visit our
shores.
A WORKSHOP FOR TEN OF THE WORLD'S LEADING SEAFARING CENTRES
(WHAT HELPS THEM SUCCEED IN A CHANGING MARITIME WORLD)
A recent workshop held at the Mariners Club in Kowloon Hong Kong, saw ten of
the world's most successful seafaring centres gather to tackle a host of issues affecting the seafaring community.
The International Christian Maritime Association (ICMA) and the ITF Seafarers Trust (initiators of the workshop)
are striving to improve the operations and effectiveness of seafarers centres globally and encourage best possible working practices.
The Reverend Dennis Claughton - Chaplain to the Port of Fremantle, Western Australia and manager of Fremantle's iconic
Flying Angel Club, was invited to participate in the workshop.
Others attending came from ports around the world including - Halifax, New York, Hamburg, Barcelona, Venice, Odessa, Liverpool, Richards Bay,
Singapore and Brazil.
On his return to Australia, Dennis spoke enthusiastically of the tremendous amount of wisdom and passion that was contributed by the
participants - all striving to provide the best possible care and service to the world's seafarers visiting their respective ports,
in a rapidly changing maritime world.
To tap into the collective wisdom of those sharing at the Hong Kong workshop visit:
http://www.icma.as/wp-content/uploads/successful-seafarers-centres.pdf
Worth watching
Link to a video showing work that the Seamen's Church Institute in America is doing on post-piracy incident trauma. Wading in the Waters