Every thought in mind for a January blog was put to flight by news that the crew of the Galaxy Leader, held captive for over a year, have at last been released to return home.
We have not spoken of it publicly but, since the crew were kidnapped by the Houthis, MtS has been supporting their families directly. For some months also we have been facilitating contact between the families and the International Maritime Organisation as part of the diplomatic work to secure the crew’s release. The situation of the crew has been volatile, and we have accepted a constraint of silence about our work because:
- ill-advised comment risked making the position worse; and
- we were asked for our usual pastoral confidentiality by the families themselves.
Now that we can talk to you about it, I hope you will rejoice that you have had a part to play in this story. That may sound odd if your own work with MtS involves driving a minibus or visiting a cruise ship, but it is true. MtS has been able to fulfil this important role, however, because we are a global organisation with representation around the world. That global reach has been crucial, and you are part of that. The Mission has been able to fulfil this role because we have earned the trust of those we serve. Seafarers, their families, the industry, the IMO trust us. And somewhere along the line that trust has been built by the fact that people like you visit ships, prioritise seafarers’ needs above personal agendas, follow the Mission’s Common Standards, raise funds responsibly and spend them wisely.
There will rightly be plenty of comments to read about the immorality of anybody using seafarers as pawns in geopolitical matters, so I will take you in a different direction – the nature of captivity and of constraint. In this situation, the crew have been captive against their will, but the Mission has freely accepted a constraint on its freedom to comment publicly about our work. Herein lies a point of distinction. Captivity involves depriving a person of some fundamental right or freedom without their consent. Constraint involves some degree of acceptance by the person constrained. That acceptance is invariably given because someone sees that by accepting constraint in one area, they can enable something bigger or better that they value more. In our case, we have accepted the constraint because the potential deliverance of the Galaxy Leader’s seafarers is more important than our own organisational needs.
Sometimes all of us wrestle with some constraint or another. My record of occasional fixed penalties, picked up driving on the roads of England, says quite a lot about one of the constraints I sometimes wrestle with! Yet, generally, I’m a good boy because I recognise that my momentary need not to be delayed is less important than the wider need to have safe roads and a society where such principles are upheld.
In some sense, every form of human relationship in which we are involved – be that personal, organisational, or social -implies a measure of constraint. For the sake of the relationship and what that can be and what it means, we all accept some constraints. There are things I will do or not do, and ways in which I will or won’t behave because of the importance of that relationship or set of relationships.
And so, I come back to MtS – each person, port, volunteer. Being part of this global set of relationships enables so much. And when there is an emergency, we are there. The strong recognition of MtS amongst seafarers themselves and the wider industry, the trust that such people are willing to invest in us, and the work we are then able to do on their behalf, rests upon each part of what we are together and the constraints we freely accept in order to be a global Mission to Seafarers.
Those of you familiar with Christian thinkers may well know the name of Karl Barth, the famous Swiss Protestant theologian of the 20th Century. He is one of my own theological heroes. In a footnote to one of his works, he wrote these words that I read and have remained with me ever since:
“The one who is limited by Him is the one who is loved by Him.”
To love is to accept constraint. Not to be a captive, but to constrain and be freely constrained by the desire to grow in and to express that love. It is love that, I hope and pray, is at the heart of what we are and do as MtS. And thank goodness that this is so, for one of the fruits of that love and the constraints it lays upon us has recently been the privilege of contributing to the freedom of the crew of the Galaxy Leader and of supporting them and their families.
