Apostleship of the Sea - Making Seafarers welcome in Sunderland
Ask any volunteer Ship Visitor, “Why do you do it?”, and they will most probably tell you that they fully enjoy the role, and that the degree of satisfaction and fulfilment they gain from this most necessary work is immense.
In the Port of Sunderland, Denise Kellingray and husband Roy, himself a former seafarer of many years, make up the team of AOS volunteer Ship Visitors. Like many other AOS volunteers in ports around GB, they bring their life skills, experience, and of course their time to the role of visiting seafarers in their place of work, and offer practical and pastoral help, in an attempt to improve the crewmembers' quality of life, at least for the few days they are in port.
In Sunderland, as in other smaller ports in the diocese, Denise and Roy have the added knowledge that no other seafarer societies provide such a service in Sunderland, so without them, there would be no outreach or support whatsoever.
The Christmas period proved to be a busy one for Denise and Roy and they were at the port visiting ships when most of us were probably hard at work enjoying the festive season. Much to their delight, Denise and Roy were made extremely welcome on each ship that they visited and had great pleasure in distributing Christmas presents.
Denise explains, “on one ship, when we brought presents for distribution, the Captain remarked, that he thought presents were only for the Filipino crewmembers on board, but when I assured him that every man would receive a gift irrespective of nationality, he was genuinely amazed. This made it all the more enjoyable and we had a great time with all the crew on that ship in what became a somewhat extended visit”.
Roy added, “Of course without the generosity of people in the parishes, namely, Holy Rosary, Immaculate Heart, St Anne’s, Pennywell, and the community of the East End in Sunderland, who donated the presents, we would not have been able to share Christmas with the seafarers, so their generosity for which we are very grateful should be noted and acknowledged”.
Tony McAvoy
AOS Lay Chaplain, &
NE Regional Co-ordinator
e-mail: teesportnorth@aposmar.net
See also Diocesan Societies-Apostleship of the Sea