From Belfast to Seattle - Reflections on 3 months of seafarers’ ministry

Reflection from Erin Burnett, intern at the Seattle Seafarers Center

My name is Erin Burnett, I am from Northern Ireland and I am doing a 6 month chaplaincy internship with the Seattle Seafarers Center. I started volunteering with the Mission to Seafarers in Belfast when I was an undergraduate, and I just finished a master’s degree in theology at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, where I wrote my thesis on the role of women in seafarers’ ministry. I love how seafarers’ ministry really puts faith into action and allows me to meet fascinating people from all over the world. The fact that English is the shared language of international shipping certainly helps! 

Time has flown and I can’t believe I am almost halfway through my internship. There has been much to get used to, like driving on the wrong right side of the road and learning to navigate the ports of Seattle and Tacoma. The challenges have been outweighed by the invaluable chaplaincy experience I have gained, and I wish to briefly reflect on some stand-out moments from the last 3 months. 

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I arrived in Seattle at the start of November, just as ‘ditty bag season’ was getting into full swing. In the words of many seafarers we visited, this is the time of year when we are “Santa Claus for the ships”! We have been delivering gifts to every ship that visits Seattle over the holiday season, and the impact of these gifts is best summed up by a message we received from a captain on Christmas Day:

“Please extra thanks to all the nice persons who, with a very small gesture, managed to bring us, in the middle of the ocean, happiness and joy ! Thank you !”

It has been amazing to see so many people from different walks of life work together to help us bring holiday cheer to seafarers. We prepared a fantastic 1,755 ditty bags with the help of church congregations, youth groups, sea scouts, shipping industry employees and retired seafarers. We are incredibly grateful to everyone who donated items and helped us pack bags. 

As well as practical items and toiletries, each bag contained a personalized, hand-made greeting card written by volunteers and pupils from local schools. Just this week a seafarer told us how much he appreciated the card in his ditty bag. Seafarers are the invisible workforce, but these gifts assure them that we see you and we are grateful for you! 

I also had the exciting task of preparing bags especially for female seafarers. These bags contained feminine toiletries, sanitary products and a support leaflet. More women are becoming seafarers than ever before, and we gave gifts to roughly 50 female seafarers, more than any previous year. 

Once the holiday rush subsided, temperatures dropped and ship traffic decreased. There was still work to be done to support the seafarers visiting Seattle in January, especially when temperatures dipped below freezing. One day the heating in our office temporarily broke and we got a mere snapshot of how cold seafarers must be when they stand out on watch for hours! Local churches have donated a fantastic supply of blankets and winter coats, many of them brand new, which we have been giving out to seafarers. These have proved to be just as popular as the ditty bags. 

In chaplaincy work it can be easy to get caught up with the logistics of everything, especially during the busy holiday season, and it is important to remember why we do what we do. I will finish with a quote from a chaplain I interviewed for my thesis, who put it much better than I can:

“I would say our work is more about, as St Francis says, using actions rather than words. It's about welcoming the stranger, going on board a ship and saying, what can we do to help you? It's all about the sacrament of presence. And so that's part of the Gospel in action, in the sense of Matthew, ‘when you were hungry, I fed you, when you were naked, I clothed you’.”

It has been a great start to my time here, I have already learnt so much and I am looking forward to what the new year will bring. I am grateful to the Center and to NAMMA for making this internship possible!