Mary-Therese Nalder, Assistant Chaplin to the Mission to Seafarers provided insights into the pastoral care her organisation provides for Seaman working on ships that visit Wellington.
This week’s speaker, Mary-Therese Nalder, is the assistant Chaplin to the Mission to Seafarers providing pastoral care for Seaman working on ships that visit Wellington.
We have an excellent record of securing very good speakers for our Rotary meetings and Mary-Therese certainly lived up to the standards set by previous speakers. I think most of us learned a lot from her presentation not the least the problems that face Seaman on long protracted voyages. There is obviously missing their families and, in some cases, not having seen recently born children. The isolation of working on ships at sea but also the monotony of the same tasks day after day.
Mary-Therese approach is incredibly practical, arranging outings for the seaman, trips on the cable car and a beer when you reach the skyline, trips to the rugby at the stadium and getting seaman to supermarkets to buy provisions!
When asked how she coped with language difficulties she replied that most seaman could speak some English but failing that Google translate comes to the rescue.
Mary-Therese visits incoming ships, being married to the Harbourmaster probably helps, providing:
- Care Packages
- Maps of Wellington
- Location of Supermarkets
- Tourist spots
Frequently Mary drives them and often acts as a tour guide. Mary added that there is a growing number of female seafarers, around 40,000 worldwide who face additional challenges.
Mary-Therese is a real gem so caring and dedicated to the role and really inspirational to all of us, thank you for an uplifting start to the morning we were all privileged to be there to listen to her presentation, thank you.