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Like a living, breathing creature, the network of port stations through which MtS does much of its work is always developing, expanding as well as sometimes contracting. It was a recent privilege to visit a new port operation in the first few days of its life.
Bearing in mind the significance of Greece in world shipping (still the largest ship-owning nation), it is perhaps surprising that we have not until now had an operation in the busy port of Piraeus close to the capital, Athens. I am sure that readers of this blog will join me in wishing Victoria Ashworth every blessing as she begins her work there, where it is evident that direct work amongst seafarers, and the potential of relationships made there to empower our work around the world, make this an important step.
My overseas travel is predictably taken up principally with work commitments. On this occasion, I did have the wonderful experience of sitting in the evening sunshine with a colleague, gazing up at the huge rocky knoll that dominates the centre of Athens, and the enclosure of ruined temples and the famous Parthenon that sits on its top.
I found myself thinking about how much the surrounding city has changed since that enclosure was thronged with people more interested in sacrifices than selfies. The differences are, of course, colossal, but shipping …? Has that changed similarly? The answer to that is, I guess, a bit of yes and a bit of no.
Despite developments in materials, propulsion, navigation and communication, to a considerable degree the practice of shipping persists much as it has done for millennia. As it has been, physical trade continues to be dominated by the movement of goods by water, in vessels that, whilst larger, are essentially shaped in much the same way and under the care of seafarers.
As they have always done, these seafarers continue to experience dangers like injury, shipwreck, and piracy, and to experience the pangs of loneliness, separation, isolation, and the corrosive pressure of fatigue. Then as now, in some ports they are welcomed, or at least accepted, and in others shunned. Then, as now, seafarers have reached for human connection and found meaning and resilience in their challenging lives through connection to sacred beliefs. In our recent survey work in preparation for a refreshed organisational strategy, approximately 80% of seafarer respondents indicated that the practice of faith was somewhere between “important” and “critical” to them in facing the challenges of their lives.
These observations, and the reality that they have persisted for millennia, highlight the reality that seafaring is a human activity that presents a range of consistent and systematic challenges particular to the people group of the world’s seafarers.
This people group and those challenges define the sphere of operation and the purpose of MtS as we seek to serve seafarers around the world and serve their families at home. As long as there are people “that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters”[1], to quote the ancients, there will be an unavoidable need for welfare and chaplaincy support for them of the kind that MtS offers.
[1] Psalm 107:23
