Seminary Students and Maritime Ministry
Maritime ministry among 'little-known' bi-vocational or 'dual call' opportunities across the United States
Five first-year seminarians from Lutheran Theological Seminary of Philadelphia toured the Maple Mighty, a steel cargo ship from China.
Some opportunities for bi-vocational or "dual call" part-time ministry are little known across the church. Bi-vocational situations involve someone working part-time as a pastor and part-time in another vocation, such as teaching or engineering. Dual call situations involve a pastor or other rostered leader called to two professional ministry settings at the same time. As economic realities strain the resources of churches and other initiatives in a position to call a pastor or other rostered leader, bi-vocational and dual calls are becoming more commonplace.
An example of such an opportunity is maritime ministry, which has some 150 locations around the country, including Seamen's Church Institute (SCI) in Philadelphia, and Seafarer's International House (SIH) in New York City. Both ministries offer personal support, encouragement and advocacy to seafarers from other homelands. The seafarers they contact face many challenges. They are away from their families for many months at a time. Tight port security and stringent working conditions leave most little or no opportunity for even brief shore leave.
Recently, five first-year seminarians from Lutheran Theological Seminary of Philadelphia (LTSP) were part of a first-time visiting field work experience to SCI. They were Susan Loney of Wilmington, DE; Kerri Walsh of Medford, NY; Daniel Spigelmyer of McClure, PA; Alexa Epstein of Philadelphia, and Rachel Anderson of Newington, CT. They toured the Maple Mighty, a steel cargo ship from China delivering goods to the Camden-Beckett Terminal in New Jersey along the Delaware River. They found Seamen's Church Institute, a 168-year-old ecumenical and interfaith ministry that serves 32,000 seafarers annually and visits 1,500 ships in a given year in the Philadelphia Port's 31 terminals along 125 miles of Delaware River shoreline – from Fairless Hills to Marcus Hook in Pennsylvania and from Burlington to Paulsboro in New Jersey.
They learned that the vast array of cargo ships bring to Philadelphia includes fruits, cocoa, oil products, steel, wood and gypsum to make sheetrock, and that 95 per cent of goods made use of by regional citizenry come to consumers by water. The seminarians were hosted by the Rev. James Von Dreele, an Episcopal priest who serves as executive director of SCI; the Rev. William Rex, a Lutheran chaplain to SCI on call from Seafarers International House in New York City, and Mark Staples, seminary writer for LTSP, and a volunteer shipboard visitor for SCI. Arrangements for the visit were made by the Rev. Dr. Charles Leonard, a one-time U.S. Navy Chaplain who supervises contextual education at LTSP.
Maritime ministry offers personal support, encouragement and advocacy to seafarers from other homelands.
Epstein summed up some of the thoughts of the seminarians by remarking about the "complexity" of those who participate in the life of the Port of Philadelphia. "All the different goods that come through the port, and all the agencies that are a part of the work – the ministry of SCI brings a humanizing dimension to it all."
"I very much appreciate LTSP's Dr. Charles Leonard's interest in helping seminarians explore a dimension of ministry that is very much below the radar screen in the church," explains the Rev. James Von Dreele, chaplain to the Port of Philadelphia and executive director of SCI. "I came to maritime ministry somewhat by accident but have found it to be extremely challenging and fulfilling. It is a unique model of ministry in which the local maritime business community expects and demands that the church to be a part of its life. There is a definite synergy of values between the church and business for the sake of seafarers who are often quite vulnerable. As many port chaplains are reaching retirement age, there will be opportunities for younger clergy to consider this as a vocational choice. In general maritime ministry organizations are looking for people who as chaplains will be entrepreneurial, self-starters and risk-takers."
Pastor Rex is serving a dual call. His other "hat" has him serving as pastor of St. Luke Lutheran Church in Ferndale, PA. Rex and Von Dreele both say maritime ministry is truly "incarnational." "We provide the only hospitality most seafarers receive," Rex says. "That makes us the face of Christ to them, and also the face of America."
Information on Lutheran seafarer chaplaincies around the US and Puerto Rico may be found at the web site for Lutheran Advocates for Maritime Mission (LAMM) where the Rev. Martha McCracken is President of the Board of Directors. Click here to contact the Rev. McCracken.