THE
P RTAL
March 2016
Page 17
News from the Groups
Apostleship of the Sea
What does
a Chaplain do on board an
ocean-going ship? Ordinariate priest, Fr Simon
Ellis, Chaplain to Mount St Mary’s College, Spinkhill,
tells us of his experience.
We rely on the sea for so many things and up to 95% of
the goods we use or consume in the UK arrive by sea, so,
in this Year of Mercy, could we support some of the 1.5
million seafarers working on 100,000 vessels at sea? The
Catholic charity ‘Apostleship of the Sea’ (AoS), through
its network of port chaplains across Great Britain, has
been supporting, since 1922, all seafarers who work on
board cruise liners, ferries and cargo ships. Apostleship
of the Sea is known by seafarers as Stella Maris, the
ancient name for Mary, Mother of God.
I was privileged to serve as Chaplain on board
the 70,000 tonne cruise ship Oriana during Holy
Week, 2015 at the very time she celebrated her
20th anniversary. I offered a daily mass for many of the
700 crew at the end of their shift…at nearly midnight
each night! Can you imagine people in the UK
staying up for a ‘midnight mass’ every night during
Holy Week? The passengers enjoyed mass at a more
civilised time!
The crew, from countries like India and the
Philippines, leave an [