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August, 2009

Hello from Col Brown- National Liaison & Support Officer Greetings from the Mission to Seafarers Australian Council. This is the second newsletter for the year. Much has happened since the last “Glad Tidings” was circulated- we have a new Secretary General in London, the retirement of some chaplains and the commissioning of new ones around Australia, and a number of exciting renovations and “face lifts” to our mission centres, as well as the recruitment of some terrific volunteers. We continue to watch closely the plight of the world’s economy as it struggles to recover, and its obvious impact on the maritime industry. With particular concern, we monitor how well our beloved seafarers are coping in the present climate of considerable uncertainty as they continue to work the world’s oceans at great peril, to make a living for themselves and loved ones.

The United Nation has announced that next year’s theme for World Maritime Day will be “2010: Year of the Seafarer”. This proclamation is most timely given that it is expected that the United Nation’s Maritime Labour Convention (known as the Seafarers’ Bill of Rights) could come into force next year. The new Convention is a consolidation and update of more than 68 earlier ILO Conventions and Recommendations. The Seafarers’ Bill of Rights is rightly hailed as a landmark development for the world’s most globalised sector which moves over 90% of world trade.

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The Seafarers’ Bill of Rights covers issues such as- minimum requirements for seafarers working on ships, conditions of employment at sea, onboard accommodation and recreational facilities, food and catering, health protection, medical care, welfare and social security protection plus compliance and enforcement of seafarers’ rights. It is critical that all our MTS personnel get an opportunity to familiarise themselves with this historic Convention. To this end, we are planning a visit from the UK by the Revd Canon Ken Peters head of the MTS central office Justice and Welfare desk. Ken will be offering workshops in both the east and west to help prepare us for the new era in seafarer’s rights. We are hoping that Ken will be with us for the first two weeks in March next year. More detail will be revealed at the Rockingham conference that is almost upon us. The following news is only a snapshot of events but at least it will bring people up to speed on some recent happenings prior to our gathering at Rockingham.

1. New Secretary General visiting Australia

Central office’s Revd Tom Heffer, recently appointed Secretary General to the Mission to Seafarers is visiting Australia in September, to attend our national conference in Rockingham. This will be a wonderful opportunity for our new chaplains and managers to meet and spend some quality time with Tom. He is a strong supporter of our ministry in Australia and has a very good understanding of how we operate down under. Our ‘older’ MTS personnel met Tom at our last national conference in Katoomba in 2007. Following that conference, Tom visited a number of our centres in NSW, Victoria and Queensland to meet MTS volunteers and supporters.

During this visit Tom will meet the people at our Fremantle and Bunbury centres in the west. Tom will then fly to New Zealand for an MTS Oceania conference in Tauranga before returning to London. Safe travel Tom as we look forward very much to your visit.

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2. National conference Registrations have been strong for conference places. We are approaching a ‘full house’ situation. Interestingly, around 50% of those coming to Rockingham were not with MTS when we held the 2007 Katoomba conference. So it will be exciting to see so many new faces with many more new stories to share in September. The actual conference programme will be sent out shortly. If anyone has any questions or concerns in the meantime please ring Col [02 42377791] or Graham [07 47722774].

3. Belfast Forum Bishop Garry, Graham Miller, Ian Porter and Col Brown attended the international MTS conference on behalf of the Australian Council in Belfast last May. A report on the conference experience will be given at the Rockingham conference.

4. Sea Sunday celebrated around the nation

Many of our centres have celebrated well attended Sea Sunday services in the last month. Garry Dodd- the 24th chaplain to the Port of Newcastle has kindly provided this photo taken at the Annual Sea Sunday service in Newcastle Cathedral, in July. Mr Garry Webb CEO of Newcastle Port Corporation participated in the service, as did many volunteers, friends and supporters of the Newcastle mission.

5. Cape Lambert’s new ministry

Richard Goscombe formerly of the Sydney parish of Cranebrook in Sydney’s western suburbs has recently commenced a ministry in the Pilbara, based at Wickham. Richard’s arrival is wonderful news for the many seafarers visiting the busy iron ore port of Cape Lambert not far from the town of Wickham. Richard will be able to spend part of his ministry visiting seafarers at this remote

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port. The port owners Rio Tinto have promised to support Richard’s work there. We wish Richard and Tracy and their three children- Rachel, Sarah and Joshua all the very best in this new and exciting challenge. Be kind to dad!

6. Bunbury’s celebrations Tim Hopwood has invited all conference participants to visit his Bunbury centre on Saturday 12 September- the day after the conference concludes. Tim and his volunteers have worked very hard to complete the extensions to their centre and all are invited to attend the blessing/dedication of the work. Tom Heffer will also be traveling to Bunbury on that Saturday to participate in Bunbury’s celebrations . Ring Tim for details on 08 9721 2370 if you are interested in joining them.

7. Bunbury’s ship visiting course full steam ahead

On the weekend before the Rockingham conference Melbourne’s Ken Cahill will be running a ship visiting course in Bunbury for the volunteers from there and Albany. Considerable interest has been shown already- so we expect a good number to participate.

8. Darwin progress Our efforts to establish a ministry at East Arm terminal in Darwin are proceeding slowly but surely. Although we have hit a few obstacles Jeremy Greaves, Dean of Darwin Cathedral has kindly offered to join the Darwin Port Welfare committee which should help prepare the way for us there.

9. Port Hedland’s face lift Out of Port Hedland comes good and bad news. The ‘good news’ is that the centre has been repainted and received a most impressive

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face lift. The ‘bad news’ is that Peter and Carol Morgan the centre’s managers, are leaving Hedland for Victoria in the coming months. Carol and Peter’s contribution at Hedland has been enormous and they will be sorely missed. Let’s hope that we can entice them to another seafaring centre further down the track. Carol and Peter you cannot hide all that talent and light under a Victorian bushel for too long.

10. Dampier’s news Ian McGilvray’ monthly reports are always full of interesting news but have mentioned a number of very nasty accidents involving seafarers that Ian has had to attend to in the last few months. Such reports always remind us of the extreme dangers our seafaring brothers and sisters face on an almost daily basis to try and make a living to support themselves and loved ones.

Ian also mentions that plans are afoot for the construction of another iron ore port between Dampier and Cape Lambert. The world wants our iron ore.

11. Hobart ship visiting training course

Hobart MTS hosted a very successful ship visiting training course for volunteers from our Hobart and Bell Bay centres. Arthur Hinsley in great style took everyone through their paces- and all passed the course with flying colours. The locals were thrilled that Fr Hillary and Fr Garry Dodd participated in the course. Garry is our port chaplain in Newcastle and Hilary is MTS’ seafaring chaplain in the Solomon Islands.

12. Fr Hillary visiting Gladstone

Hillary’s bravery in traveling from the hot and steamy Solomon Islands direct to freezing Hobart to

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join in the course, was something to behold. Col, Garry and a frozen Hillary [wearing at least three woollen beanies, two heavy duty socks on each foot and Antarctic designed thermal underwear] also visited Garry Jones’ centre at Bell Bay. Once Hillary defrosted [taking around 48 hours] he was able to move and speak a little, telling us how much he “enjoyed” the Tassie experience- before catching a fast plane direct to sunny Gladstone in Queensland. He will spend a few months at our Gladstone centre helping Trevor Phillips and the volunteers with some ship visiting work before returning home later this year. We wish Hilary all the very best for his stay in Gladstone. The Gladstone MTS centre will be much richer for Hilary’s presence, gifts and happy smile around the place.

13. Bell Bay’s facelift The Bell Bay volunteers have done a marvelous painting, renovating

and refurbishing job to their seafaring centre, which is perfectly located in the port precincts, overlooking the wharf/berthing facilities. We are thrilled that Garry Jones will be joining us at Rockingham as it has been a long time since anyone from Bell Bay has attended a national conference. Bell Bay is now Tasmania’s busiest port for overseas ship visits.

14. Ken Peters to visit us in March 2010

As mentioned in the introduction, we are thrilled that the Revd Canon Ken Peters head of the MTS Justice and Welfare desk in central office London will be presenting workshops in Australia in the first two weeks of March 2009. We are still working out with Ken the detail and logistics of the visit but the theme of the workshops will concentrate on the new Maritime Labour Convention

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[known as the Seafarers’ Bill of Rights] which hopefully will soon gain ratification and come into force in 2010. The Convention requires adoption by at least 30 countries representing 33% of world tonnage. Australia has not yet ratified the Convention which we hope and pray is not too far away.

15. International Year of the Seafarer- 2010 Ken’s visit is well timed as the International Maritime Organization [a specialized agency of the UN] has recently proclaimed 2010 as “International Year of the Seafarer”. The IMO Council said “it would give the international maritime community the opportunity to pay tribute to the world’s 1.5 million seafarers for their unique contribution to society and the world’s economy.” No doubt our conference gathering will give us an opportunity to decide on how we will respond to the 2010 seafaring theme. Ken’s visit is a good start- and more should be known about Ken’s plans by then that can be shared and discussed at the conference.

16. The next meeting of the Australian Council

The next meeting of the Australian Council will take place at the Rockingham conference following the election of the new councilors during the conference. The first meeting for 2010 is planned for early March on the East coast which should coincide with Ken Peter’s visit and give the new council members and Liaison Bishops a chance to spend time with Ken.

17. Philip and Kath are

leaving Geraldton

After spending one year at Geraldton helping get the centre back on its feet and open for business, Philip and Kathy Knife are returning to Perth soon. Thank you very much to the two of you for the dedication and terrific contribution you have made in resurrecting the ministry at Geraldton port. Arrangements have been made for the Rev Laurie Skilton to come from Perth to be

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the locum chaplain until the end of the year. We will get a chance to welcome Laurie at the national conference.

18. Brisbane’s new chaplain

A very warm welcome to the Revd Daniel Vun who has just been commissioned as chaplain to the Mission to Seafarers Brisbane. Dan and wife Helen (also a chaplain) last month, moved from New Zealand to Brisbane, and have settled in to the new surroundings smoothly. We look forward to meeting Dan in Rockingham and extending our congratulations and best wishes for the big job ahead.

As you may know, the Queensland government has controversially announced that the Port of Queensland is to be put on the market for sale. A figure of around 3.5 billion dollars has been mooted as its commercial worth. Daniel and Col have an appointment to meet with Brisbane Port’s CEO Jeff Coleman next week- not to discuss purchase of the port but to explore ways in which the Port can better support our ministry there!

19. Port Kembla’s ship blessing

A very moving ship blessing ceremony was carried out recently onboard the brand new car carrying Silverstone Express, in Port Kembla harbour. Following an accident to a crew member in Melbourne on its first working voyage, the captain and crew were very keen for the blessing to take place on the ship’s arrival at Port Kembla. MTS’ Dave Masters organized for Fr Bernie Doudle to lead the onboard liturgy which was attended by the captain, the crew, Dave, Col Brown and volunteers from our Port Kembla centre. Following a blessing of the ship itself, then the bridge, galley, engine room and each crew member everyone was in great spirits- and it was a happy and contented crew that set sail later that day for the northern hemisphere.