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Blue water seafarers spend months aboard ship at sea–far from home and removed from family. Once in port, SCI’s chaplains provide pastoral care and social welfare services to seafarers on commercial ships in Port Newark, Port Elizabeth, and Bayonne, as well as to tug and harbor operators on Staten Island.

Annually, the SCI chaplaincy team visits thousands of vessels in the Port of New York & New Jersey from our International Seafarers’ Center in Port Newark. Chaplains offer counseling, fellowship, practical support, and priority response to situations in which pastoral care is needed. Many are certified in Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) and Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST). SCI affirms a basic precept of faith communities: ministry to the stranger, regardless of faith or background. Ministry is never sold or traded but simply offered, irrespective of financial support from any individual company or sector.

Discover more about our Pastoral Care Team’s locations on this interactive map.