IN THIS ISSUE – January 2023

• Registration Is Now Open For SCI's Mountain Challenge
• What's In A Name: The Seamen's Church Institute
• Report From The December 2022 IMO/ILO Joint Tripartite Working Group

Photo: Crewmen from the MV Richard E. Waugh (Ingram) by J. Horman

SEE YOU ON THE MOUNTAIN

Registration is now open for SCI's 2023 Mountain Challenge at Mount Snow in West Dover, Vermont. Event dates are Thursday, September 28, to Sunday, October 1. Space is limited! The Mountain Challenge is among our most popular events—if it reaches capacity, registration will be considered on a first-come, first-served basis. We will have a waiting list, but we encourage you to register your team early. Thank you for supporting SCI.

For more information, please contact: 

[email protected] or call 212-401-4072.

Thank you to Cargill for supporting the 2023 Mountain Challenge as our Lead Sponsor! To learn more about sponsorship opportunities for this event, please email [email protected].

What’s in a Name: The Seamen’s Church Institute of…

During our almost 200-year history, the Seamen’s Church Institute (SCI) has operated under various names. We began in 1834 as the Young Men’s Church Missionary Society before focusing our efforts solely on mariners in 1843, which was reflected in the change of name to the Protestant Episcopal Church Missionary Society for Seamen in the Port and City of New York. This rather cumbersome name held for 63 years until then SCI Trustee Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan, U.S.N., proposed a new name as we looked to expand the Institute’s size. “Whom do we serve?” he asked. “Seamen,” was the reply. “Under whose auspices?” he continued, and the response was “the Church’s.” And finally, he asked, “And what is the nature of our work?” “Institutional” was the response. As such, in 1906, we were incorporated by the state legislature as the Seamen’s Church Institute of New York. 

Of course, shipping and maritime have changed over the years, as has SCI. During the mid-20th century, we operated subsidiary port operations, including the Seamen’s Church Institute of Charleston, the Seamen’s Church Institute of New Orleans, and the Seamen’s Church Institute of San Francisco—all of which had ceased operations by the late 1950s. In 1960, with the introduction of containerization and the expansion of port operations across the river into New Jersey, SCI opened a large recreational center for seafarers and added additional chaplains and ship visitors. This expansion was finally acknowledged in 1976 when we adopted a new name as the Seamen’s Church Institute of New York & New Jersey.

Since that name change, we have continued to evolve. In 1997, in addition to our operations in the Port of New York & New Jersey, we opened a new maritime simulation training center in Paducah, Kentucky—at the confluence of the Ohio and Tennessee rivers (and not far from where the Ohio flows into the Mississippi). At the same time, we expanded our pastoral care and chaplaincy work to include serving mariners crewing vessels on the western rivers. In 2000, we opened a second training facility in the Houston Ship Channel and added another chaplain to serve the Lower Mississippi region.

Today, the Seamen’s Church Institute is a robust multi-state operation consisting of the International Seafarers’ Center with chaplains, drivers, and hospitality staff in the Port of New York & New Jersey; our Center for Maritime Education training facilities in Paducah, Kentucky, and Houston, Texas; our Center for Mariner Advocacy located in New Orleans, Louisiana; three full-time Ministry on the River chaplains—supported by a network of chaplain associates across 14 states; and our administrative headquarters, which is still located in lower Manhattan, near where it all began 189 years ago. 

So, to better reflect this broad geographic diversity and who we are as an organization, we have changed our corporate name from the Seamen’s Church Institute of New York & New Jersey to simply the Seamen’s Church Institute—full stop. But our mission, and our familiar logo, will not change. Whether they crew vessels that move cargo on the inland river system, intracoastal waterways, or across vast oceans, we continue to champion mariners and seafarers, providing them a beacon of support for pastoral care and legal advocacy, and professional training and advancement, just as we’ve done for nearly two centuries.

Save The Date: Thursday, April 20, 2023

This event supports SCI’s state-of-the-art educational experiences for mariners at our training facilities in Houston, TX, Paducah, KY, and online.

For more information or to participate as a sponsor, contact [email protected] or call 212.401.4072.

 SCI IN THE NEWS 

SCI joins Crounse Corporation's President and CEO Matt Ricketts in thanking the city of Paducah for its hospitality during "Waterways Week"—we are proud to be part of its vibrant river-transportation community. See Letter to the Editor — Paducah Sun, 1-7-23.

KOTUG President and CEO Ard-Jan Kooren interviewed in MarineLog's "CEO Spotlight," highlights our training partnership with SCI's Center for Maritime Education — MarineLog, 1/23, Page 22.

CME IS HIRING — SIMULATOR INSTRUCTOR

SCI's Center for Maritime Education is seeking an experienced simulator instructor for its Paducah, KY, facility. This is a full-time, on-site, shoreside position. If you know of a mariner who might be interested in this position, please forward this link— seamenschurch.org/instructor—or click below to view the PDF.

Phil Schifflin of the Center for Mariner Advocacy, SCI, explains the work of the ICMA delegations to the ILO and the IMO. Source: ICMA—YouTube Video.

Report from the December 2022 IMO/ILO Joint Tripartite Working Group 

The governing bodies of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and International Labor Organization (ILO) approved creating a Joint Tripartite Working Group (JTWG) to identify and address seafarers’ issues and the human element. The JTWG already has several items on its worklist, including the abandonment of seafarers, sexual assault/sexual harassment in the merchant marine, and criminalization of seafarers.

The JTWG met for the first time December 13-15, in Geneva, Switzerland, to review and approve guidelines on how to deal with seafarer abandonment issues, and SCI’s Center for Mariner Advocacy Director Phil Schifflin attended this meeting as head of the International Christian Maritime Association’s (ICMA) delegation. After much discussion, deliberation, and hard work, the group ultimately approved guidelines that establish best practices for key parties (shipowners, surety providers, flag states, port states, and labor-supplying states) to better respond to seafarer abandonment cases. These guidelines are recommended as best practices; they are not mandatory.

The next step for the proposed guidelines is forwarding them to the IMO’s Legal Committee Meeting for review and consideration in March 2023—Phil will be attending that meeting. If the Legal Committee approves the proposed guidelines without change, they could be promulgated as joint ILO/IMO guidelines shortly after. If the Legal Committee makes any substantive changes to the guidelines, they will have to be forwarded to the ILO for review and consideration. If this occurs, the promulgation of these guidelines will be delayed for at least a year or possibly longer.

The next JTWG meeting is tentatively scheduled for late 2023 (likely November or December) and will most likely be looking at ways to better address Sexual Assault/Sexual Harassment issues in the merchant marine.

Pastoral Care, Legal Advocacy, Professional Training.

A donation to The Seamen's Church Institute

helps us support mariners and seafarers

with the challenges they face and

the demanding work they do.

THANK YOU!

 FROM THE SCI ARCHIVES 

It's National Popcorn Day. And what pairs perfectly with popcorn? A movie!

In our ongoing efforts to provide wholesome entertainment to distract seafarers from the less wholesome fare in the sailortown saloons, SCI screened many movies both in the auditorium at our hotel at 25 South Street and on a screen in Jeanette Park across the street from the main entrance.

These outdoor movies attracted people from all around the neighborhood, including families living on canal boats and lighters that rafted up to piers 5 and 6 between SCI and the Battery Maritime Building. In June 1922, The Lookout called for the donation of a concert grand piano for the bandshell in Jeanette Park so the audience could hear the live accompaniment to the movies over the clatter of the elevated subway a block away on Pearl Street.

Thank you to our corporate partners