Seamen's Church Institute of New York and New Jersey
Encyclopedia
Episcopal Church (United States)
The Episcopal Church is a mainline Anglican Christian church found mainly in the United States , but also in Honduras, Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands and parts of Europe...
, serves mariners through education, pastoral care, and legal advocacy. With a budget of over $7 million dollars, SCI is the largest, most comprehensive mariners’ agency in North America. Headquartered in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, the Institute operates seafarers’ centers in Port Newark and the Port of Oakland
Port of Oakland
The Port of Oakland was the first major port on the Pacific Coast of the United States to build terminals for container ships. It is now the fifth busiest container port in the United States, behind Long Beach, Los Angeles, Newark, and Savannah...
, a hospitality center in the Brooklyn Passenger Ship Terminal, and maritime education facilities in Paducah, KY and Houston, TX.
Annually, its chaplains visit more than 4,000 vessels in the Port of New York and New Jersey
Port of New York and New Jersey
The Port of New York and New Jersey comprises the waterways in the estuary of the New York-Newark metropolitan area with a port district encompassing an approximate area within a radius of the Statue of Liberty National Monument...
, the Port of Oakland
Port of Oakland
The Port of Oakland was the first major port on the Pacific Coast of the United States to build terminals for container ships. It is now the fifth busiest container port in the United States, behind Long Beach, Los Angeles, Newark, and Savannah...
and along American inland waterways.
SCI provides free legal advice for merchant mariners worldwide and advocates for their rights to the United States Government, including the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
, the Department of Homeland Security and the US Coast Guard, as well as the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
, the International Maritime Organization
International Maritime Organization
The International Maritime Organization , formerly known as the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization , was established in Geneva in 1948, and came into force ten years later, meeting for the first time in 1959...
, the International Labor Organization and maritime trade associations.
SCI instructors provide professional development
Professional development
Professional development refers to skills and knowledge attained for both personal development and career advancement. Professional development encompasses all types of facilitated learning opportunities, ranging from college degrees to formal coursework, conferences and informal learning...
and educational programs for inland, coastal, and deep-sea mariners using simulator training facilities at SCI-Paducah and SCI-Houston.
SCI's Christmas at Sea program provides hand-knit gifts to more than 15,000 mariners at the holidays.
Historical Highlights of SCI (1834-2011)
1834: SCI is founded at a meeting of the Young Men’s Auxiliary Education and Missionary Society1844: SCI builds the Floating Church of Our Savior to provide a place of worship where seafarers could feel comfortable and welcome
1868: SCI builds its first mission house at 34 Pike Street in the bustling New York Harbor
1898: The Christmas at Sea program begins
1899: The beginnings of Maritime Education at SCI
1908: Franklin D. Roosevelt joins SCI ’s Board, on which he remained until his death in 1945
1913: SCI opens the doors of its 13-story building at 25 South Street in downtown Manhattan
1917: The Institute begins training merchant marines for World War I
1920: Janet Lord Roper begins running the Missing Seamen’s Bureau
1924: SCI opens an emergency homeless shelter for seafarers affected by the shipping industry’s economic downturn
1961: SCI dedicates its International Seafarers’ Center in Port Newark, NJ
1982: The Center for Seafarers’ Rights is established
1991: SCI moves to new headquarters at 241 Water Street in New York City
1997: The Institute opens CME–Paducah in Kentucky, the first training facility of its kind for America’s inland river mariners
1998: Ministry on the River begins, the only full-time pastoral care service available to mariners working on America’s inland river systems
2001: SCI dedicates CME–Houston, a facility for maritime training in the Port of Houston
2006: SCI opens the Passenger Ship Terminal Hospitality Center in Brooklyn
2009: SCI assumes management of the International Maritime Center in the San Francisco Bay Area
2009: SCI launches groundbreaking study on the psychological effects of piracy
2011: SCI changes Ministry on the River to Ministry on the Rivers+Gulf to reflect the expanding scope of this ministry
Pastoral Care and Services
In the Port of New York and New JerseyPort of New York and New Jersey
The Port of New York and New Jersey comprises the waterways in the estuary of the New York-Newark metropolitan area with a port district encompassing an approximate area within a radius of the Statue of Liberty National Monument...
and the Port of Oakland
Port of Oakland
The Port of Oakland was the first major port on the Pacific Coast of the United States to build terminals for container ships. It is now the fifth busiest container port in the United States, behind Long Beach, Los Angeles, Newark, and Savannah...
, SCI chaplains visit thousands of vessels entering annually, providing needed services to crews and offering hospitality and pastoral care. Seafarers visiting SCI hospitality centers can access the Internet, phone their families at home, and enjoy a range of other amenities free of charge.
SCI's Ministry on the Rivers+Gulf program reaches out to mariners and maritime workers on the inland waterways and in the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
. Three full-time chaplains board towboat
Towboat
Not to be confused with the historic boat type with the same name, also called horse-drawn boat.A towboat is a boat designed for pushing barges or car floats. Towboats are characterized by a square bow with steel knees for pushing and powerful engines...
s and offshore vessels to offer pastoral care and hospitality.
SCI chaplains welcome also cruise ships entering Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, giving thousands of cruise ship
Cruise ship
A cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way...
workers easy access to pastoral care and services such as wire transfer
Wire transfer
Wire transfer or credit transfer is a method of electronic funds transfer from one person or institution to another. A wire transfer can be made from one bank account to another bank account or through a transfer of cash at a cash office...
s, phone cards, Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, and products unique to their homelands.
Maritime Education and Training
SCI instructors provide professional developmentProfessional development
Professional development refers to skills and knowledge attained for both personal development and career advancement. Professional development encompasses all types of facilitated learning opportunities, ranging from college degrees to formal coursework, conferences and informal learning...
and educational programs for inland, coastal, and deep-sea mariners using simulator training at facilities in Paducah, Kentucky
Paducah, Kentucky
Paducah is the largest city in Kentucky's Jackson Purchase Region and the county seat of McCracken County, Kentucky, United States. It is located at the confluence of the Tennessee River and the Ohio River, halfway between the metropolitan areas of St. Louis, Missouri, to the west and Nashville,...
and Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
.
Policy, Advocacy and Law
SCI's Center for Seafarer Rights (CSR) is the world's only free legal-aid program for merchant mariners. Available for consultation at any time, CSR mediates between parties to reach a resolution acceptable to everyone, often referring individual mariners to pro-bono law firms for assistance. Working with human rights and government groups from around the world, CSR has been instrumental in improving safety and security for mariners, as well as implementing new standards relating to stowaways, piracy, repatriation, medical care and shore leave.Taking on a new dimension to advocacy, CSR has retained the services of psychologist Michael Garfinkle, PhD to begin a study on the psychological impact of piracy on seafarers. The project is being coordinated by Dr. Garfinkle across the Seamen's Church Institute, the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and the New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute.
Christmas at Sea
With more than 4,500 knitters drawn from all 50 states, SCI’s Christmas at Sea provides over 15,000 hand-knit gifts to merchant mariners working on Christmas Day. Begun in 1898 during the Spanish American War, Christmas at Sea relies on SCI chaplains who distribute gifts to international seafarers, inland river mariners and offshore workers in the Gulf of Mexico throughout the holiday season.Archives
SCI has an extensive physical archive collection located at Queens College, City University of New YorkQueens College, City University of New York
Queens College, located in Flushing, Queens, New York City, is one of the senior colleges of the City University of New York. It is also the fifth oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning. The college's seventy seven acre campus is located in the heart of the...
. The Institute has also digitized a portion of its archives, available online at http://seamenschurch.org/archives.
Other references
- Faith on the Water,The Southern, October 8, 2011
- PBS Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, January 7, 2011
- Seamen's Church Institute Charts New Course for 21st-Century Ministry, Episcopal Life Online, October 15, 2010
- Seamen's Knit 4 Lent initiative to serve mariners working in Gulf Coast, Episcopal Life Online, February 7, 2008 http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81799_94721_ENG_HTM.htm
- David M. Rider named president, executive director of Seamen's Church Institute, Episcopal Life Online, October 2, 2007 http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_90629_ENG_HTM.htm
- COREY KILGANNON, Men of the Sea, Marooned at the Ramada, The New York Times, New York and Region, January 22, 2005
- DANIEL J. WAKIN, Marooned, Just Feet From Shore; Tighter Security Keeps Foreign Crews on Ships , The New York Times, New York and Region, July 24, 2003
- JEAN SMITH (Rev.), A Seaman's Plight, The New York Times, Opinion, December 5, 2001
- George Harding, On Admiralty Service, Harpers Magazine, December 1917
- Norman Duncan, Youngsters of the seven seas, Harpers Magazine, December 1910
External links
- http://seamenschurch.org/
- http://cas.seamenschurch.org
- http://chaplainsblog.seamenschurch.org