The Mission and Covid-19

Things in BC are changing every day in response to the events of the day and as we all have to do, the Mission needs to adhere to best practice, to keep everyone including volunteers, the staff and of course the seafarers safe and well.

Both the Waterfront and Roberts Bank centres remain closed until further notice and staff and volunteers remain at home.

The Chaplains continue to ship visit by going only to the ‘gangway’ taking nothing except contact info and at a distance asking how the crew are. In nearly every case the crew are not permitted or wanting to go ashore. We are mindful that we pose a bigger risk to them than they to us as they are on a ship and have little physical contact with the outside world being weeks on end at sea.

We share how thankful we all are that the seafarers are bringing us what we need in way of food, medicine etc. They do this at a cost as many crew are working more than their contract, a year or more in some cases, because crew changes in many ports around the world have been stopped. It is also hard for those who want to come onboard to earn money but can’t. Crew changes have not been stopped in Canada but limited flights and not being able to get off the ship prohibits it.