Seamen's Church Institute adds new operations in California

July 04, 2009 [SCI] The Seamen's Church Institute (SCI) now has a base of operations on both sides of the American seaboard, since its Executive Committee assumed management of the International Maritime Center in the San Francisco Bay Area of California on July 1. Last year, the Bay Area Seafarers' Services (BASS) approached SCI about adding a West Coast resource to the services the institute provides to the world's mariners.

As the largest and most comprehensive mariners' service organization, SCI connects face-to-face with nearly 85,000 mariners each year. Although a network of volunteers from 50 states financially and materially supports the institute, until now SCI's physical presence had not branched beyond the middle of the United States. The International Maritime Center in Oakland, California provides a seventh base of operations for the institute, adding to four Port of New York area centers, and two Centers for Maritime Education in Paducah, Kentucky and Houston, Texas.

The Bay Area International Maritime Center, like SCI's existing International Seafarers' Center in Port Newark, provides services to mariners during their stay in the port. Mariners can use the center to access the internet and phone home using low cost phone cards; speak to new friends, including chaplains; relax, play sports, and have some refreshments; and even pick up a few souvenirs from their journey. The center also serves as a station from which chaplains visit seafarers onboard vessels.

"Our ministry expands to meet the needs of mariners," says the Rev. David M. Rider, SCI president and executive director. "We do our best to look after them and their needs, and answering the call 'Go West!' is an important step in reaching out to mariners in other locations around the United States." Rider says that SCI's expansion meets not only the needs of the mariners visiting the Bay Area Port but also the International Maritime Center, which sought to strengthen its efforts and infrastructure.

The Bay Area Port community will celebrate a new chapter of the International Maritime Center on Thursday, September 24, with a special gathering.

Founded in 1834 and affiliated with the Episcopal Church (though non-denominational in terms of its trustees, staff and service to mariners), The Seamen's Church Institute of New York & New Jersey (SCI) is the largest, most comprehensive mariners' agency in North America.

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