I wonder if those readers who have another first language than English can enlighten us about the phenomenon of “collective nouns”?
Do those first languages have a particular “thing” about collective nouns? English, amongst its very many odd features, makes quite a thing out of collective nouns.
One dolphin is just a dolphin, but a group together is called a “Pod”, a pod of dolphins. So also, one wolf – a pack of wolves. Even more unusually we have a “faith of merchants”, a “parliament of owls”, and a “murder of crows”.
The choice of a collective noun is not accidental. Each one gives us a hint of how that grouping of things is seen. In the English-speaking world, crows, for example, have long been seen as unlucky creatures, as bad omens, or indicators that something unfortunate is going to happen. A rather dark name like a “murder” of crows is perhaps fitting. What, I wonder would be the appropriate collective noun for us, for The Mission to Seafarers? All our people, all our Centres, all our partners, all our teams and programmes.
I have been thinking about this as I have continued to visit the different regions of the world in which the Mission is present. I have had the privilege of attending and speaking at The Mission to Seafarers’ International Welfare Awards in Singapore. I have been clambering up the side of cargo vessels in Hong Kong and meeting our Hong Kong team. I have been witnessing our carefully positioned work in Bahrain and the UAE and the respect in which the Mission is held by the national governments. I have been submerged in the torrent of humanity in Mumbai where the Mission team serve in huge and rapidly expanding ports, and feeling my heart moved by the beautiful and creative work of the family network in Tuticorin. I have been speaking to 500 or more delegates at an industry conference and getting a sense of how the Mission is seen and valued by our industry partners.
The work of The Mission to Seafarers moves forward in many places and in many ways. In each place across the world, and at times through digital means, our people are busy serving seafarers. In that moment of service, it is the interaction between seafarer and chaplain or ship visitor that is the very heart of what we do. Yet, I have been conscious that whilst that is the heart and focus, it is what it is because of the wide network that is The Mission to Seafarers. There is, you might say, the individual moment, and also the wider network – the single noun and the collective noun.
The service in pastoral care and practical support offered to a seafarer in Panama, with severe burns and abandoned by his shipping company, is only possible because of the dedication of our staff there on the ground. Yet they are there on the ground and have the resources with which to work because of a wider Mission raising support, recruiting, training, and praying.
The reality that the life and work of the Mission is both individual and local, and collective and global, was brought home to me even more strongly by the story of the seafarer you can see in the picture below. The point of acute need came for Fernando in Australia. Our team at the Mission in Fremantle were able to serve in the moment of crisis, and they were able to bring to bear the global strength of the Mission. As Fernando was repatriated to the Philippines, they contacted our Family Support Network in Manila. There, Mission staff have been able to receive and care for him and his family, making a life-changing difference.
And so, we recognise that our work goes forwards person by dedicated person, moved by the love of God, and serving seafarers unconditionally according to their needs. Yet we can see also that our work is always global, drawing strength from each other across the seas of the world. What would be an appropriate collective noun for us?
Are we a “Compassion” perhaps? Maybe a “Network”? Possibly a “Family”, or a “Movement”? But maybe a “Mission” does capture things after all.
No collective noun or image will ever grasp the full reality. As the various books of the New Testament talk about the nature of the Church of God, they use not one, but many collective images. At times the Church is like a building. At others it is like a body, or a household, or a plant. Each image, word or model emphasises different aspects, all of which it can be important to remember.
I suspect then that there is no single collective noun that can fully grasp everything important about The Mission to Seafarers in each place and around the world in one go. Different ones might be suggested, and you are very welcome to drop me a message to let me know what your preferred collective noun might be and why. Maybe the most important thing is not so much what word we choose, but simply taking the opportunity to think about it. It is a good thing to ponder the different aspects of what we are together, and the ways in which we are both intensely localised in each interaction with a seafarer, and yet the wider world of the Mission is somehow gathered around that single meeting, or directly brought to bear by deliberately making use of our global reach to offer the most effective service that we can.
For all that Mission people and our many supporters enable for the benefit of the world’s seafarers, I continue in growing thanks.
God bless you all.
