By Julia Stuart
Inner city Auckland’s St James’ Church was once on a site now graced by a sculpture of a pohutukawa flower, next to the Nelson Street motorway off -ramp.
When that church was taken out by motorway construction, the congregation moved half a kilometre to the Congregational Church in Beresford Street. In 1994, the church and land was sold and since then the congregation of St James Church and Community has wandered around the inner city. Now it has a new home, combined with a new ministry, at the downtown International Seafarers’ Centre, and the congregation is responding well, according to St James’ minister the Rev Mervyn Aitken.
Since July last year, the congregation, which has survived and grown a little during its peripatetic existence, has had an agreement to use the Mariners’ Chapel in Quay Street for its worship and group meetings. Part of the arrangement is that Mervyn takes his turn on the chaplain’s roster. This involves visiting ships in port as well as helping staff the Centre, which is the base for the International (formerly British) Sailors’ Society, the Flying Angel Mission (Anglican) and Stella Maris (Catholic).
Seafarers’ centres provide visiting ships’ crew with a much-needed safe and welcoming shore base. The centres post and receive mail, provide phones, light refreshments, can arrange translators and sell phonecards and inexpensive souvenirs. Recreation with locals and other ships’ crews – pool tables, cards, books, TV – provides relief from the sometimes claustrophobic life on board the big ships with small crew that still ply the world’s oceans.
Short turn-around times in port mean the waterfront Centre runs 10 hours a day, seven days a week. St James’ congregation maintains its regular life – worship, small group meetings, social events – and seafarers often get caught up in the church’s activities. It helps that the congregation has a significant Asian membership and some can help with conversation – the Rev Sunday Tsoi, for example, who works from there and is chaplain to Asian university students - speaks five languages. Translators can be arranged for crises but many of the seafarers just want to chat.
“Help with phoning home is an important part of our service,” says Mervyn. “The seafarers are desperate to talk to their families. So often the connection is poor, and we get called in to help. You can see the seafarer sliding into despair as the link is lost, and then finally the joy as the caller gets through.”
The centre is vital for help during a crisis. Filipino seafarer Rossano Santos, along with 24 others, was in limbo for five months during an ownership dispute over his ship. There was no money to pay the crew their wages or fares home, and back in Manila his family was suffering without the regular allotment from his wages. The centre staff were all involved – with personal support and advocacy through liaison with the Seamen’s Union, the ship-owner’s agents and others involved.
The Auckland Mission to Seafarers is 150 years old this year, with a special service of celebration in July and a visit from Princess Anne marking the occasion. It seems fitting that a congregation as long-lived as St James (founded in 1862) has found a base to the benefit of all.