Skip to Content

Sister Mary Leahy and Deacon Ricardo Rodriguez-Martos on Working with the Port Community

ICMA World Conference 2019 By Kevin Walker   One highlight of October 22, the second day of the ICMA 2019 World Conference in Kaohsiung, was a lively panel entitled “A Unified Voice for our Work Together.”  Deacon Ricardo Rodriguez-Martos’ presentation on the port community, Douglas Stevenson’s on ICMA’s involvement in the MLC 2006, and Andy […]

ICMA Conference Opening Day

By Kevin Walker, NAMMA The first day of the ICMA World Conference 2019 has been full of entertainment, culture, ceremony, and fellowship among Christian maritime welfare workers.  Attendees have already seen in today’s activities the importance of our unity in service to seafarers, fishers, and their families; the diversity of people that God has called […]

A Letter to St. Francis

by  Fr. Arnaud de Boisseau, Chaplain, Port of Casablanca, Morocco,  May 2016.   (Translated by Jason Zuidema. Original French text in: François d’Assise et Marseille, ed. Mgr Jean-Marc Aveline, Auxiliary bishop of Marseille, Institut Catholique de la Mediteranée, 2016. Used with permission.)   St. Francis, I do not dare. I dare not write to you. I don’t […]

Book Review: The Outlaw Ocean

Ian Urbina, The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier. New York: Alfred A. Knopf: 2019. xvi + 540. Based on a series of articles for the New York Times on crime and vulnerability at sea, Ian Urbina’s new book is a must-read for all those interested in the injustices seafarers and fishers can […]

Morse and Marconi: Connecting with Seafarers

Photo: British Post Office engineers inspect Marconi’s radio equipment during a demonstration on Flat Holm Island – near the port of Bristol, England, 13 May 1897. [British Post Office licensed under CC BY 3.0] By Rev. David Reid MA AFNI In 1836, the American artist Samuel Morse created the original Morse code that would make possible […]

The Lighthouse: a friend of the mariner

(Image: East Quoddy Head Lighthouse, [Head Harbor Light since 1829.] Campobello Island, NB, Canada. Photo courtesy of Nicholas Nasobko). Lighthouses are the friend of the mariner, and they have a long history of service to seafarers. There are some 21,200 of them around the world, according to the Lighthouse Directory. The earliest lighthouse structure dates […]

Chaplaincy to Seafarers from a Sailboater’s Perspective

Over the last year, NAMMA member Eric Phinney of the Saint John Seafarers’ Mission and his wife Val have been sailing in a sailboat called Tevah (the Hebrew word used for both Noah’s ark and Moses’ basket).  The trip gave him a chance to meet chaplains all along the East Coast and think about seafarers’ […]

“I know chaplains who are hurting”: Confronting Isolation

By Susan Huppert, NAMMA Isolation goes viral The poet John Donne’s line, “no man is an island,” is not only great poetry, but a human reality: people need to be connected. Yet loneliness and isolation seep into our lives even in a time of unmeasured options to be in touch. Connect is the new buzzword […]

Back to top