Services for Mariners

Hardworking men and women of the maritime industry make huge sacrifices to provide the world with a way of life to which it has become accustomed. Spending many months onboard a vessel, away from family and friends, mariners face dangers and challenges unique to their round-the-clock profession.

Away from the support of their local communities, SCI gives mariners a place to feel "at home." The Institute offers a warm welcome at seafarers’ centers on both coasts of the United States—one in the Port of New York and New Jersey and another in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. SCI also meets mariners right where they work—aboard cargo and cruise ships and on the vessels that travel the inland river waterways of the United States.

As part of its round-the-clock ministry, SCI maintains a staff of professional chaplains with interfaith and cross-cultural backgrounds. Chaplains and volunteers assist thousands of mariners each year, offering a hand of friendship and pastoral care. They also bring with them practical services like wire transfer forms, calling cards, and cell phones to connect with loved ones at home.

SCI provides a wide spectrum of support services—chaplaincy, legal aid, and continuing maritime education. Whenever a mariner connects with SCI, he or she can count on a comprehensive response.

Retired Mariners Services

SCI provides a friendly and safe environment for relaxation, recreation, and spiritual refreshment. At each of the Institute’s locations, mariners and visitors are warmly welcome.

SCI invites active and retired mariners visiting New York or living nearby to its fellowship meals on the first and third Tuesdays of each month. Starting at 3 pm and ending at 5 pm, this gathering may include a movie, musical performance, or other entertainment. The Rev. Megan Sanders hosts this festive occasion where seafaring stories are re-told to old and new friends.

At SCI-New York, Chaplain Sanders also coordinates events for retired mariners including monthly meetings of the American Merchant Marine Veterans, Edwin J. O'Hara Chapter. If you are a mariner in the New York area and would like to find out more about these activities, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Ministry on the River

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Inland river mariners wishing to contact SCI may reach a chaplain any time by calling our toll-free number, 800-708-1998, or by sending email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Be sure to check out our chaplains’ blog at chaplainsblog.seamenschurch.org

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Established in 1998, SCI's Ministry on the River is the nation's only full-time pastoral care ministry on the Ohio and Lower Mississippi River systems. From Pittsburgh, PA to Houston, TX and points in between and beyond, a network of clergy and lay volunteers on the inland rivers serves as a resource to mariners  and their families.

The program, operating 365 days a year, includes boat visits, counseling services, fellowship, and collecting and distributing gifts for Christmas and Easter. Ministry on the River's Easter and Christmas on the River programs involve hundreds of school children and church members.

Ministry on the River is a network of SCI employees and volunteers across America’s heartland. People from all faiths and walks of life sustain SCI’s ministry. We all find our own ways to be a part of this welcoming community. For example

Christmas on the River Part of Ministry on the River, a network of volunteers collect and distribute gift boxes to towboat crews. Each box contains a handknit scarf, small gifts, a devotional, and handmade Christmas cards from children. Groups pack gift boxes at numerous locations up and down the rivers. To learn more, click here.

Pass It On A volunteer program supplying books and DVDs (westerns and mysteries only, please) to those on towboats.

Easter on the River Similar to Christmas on the River, this program delivers boxes decorated by school children to inland river mariners.

Mariners’ Sunday Mariners’ Sundays provide opportunities to share SCI’s work with congregations through an available set of resources or a visit by one of the members of the Ministry on the River staff.

River Friendly Churches Congregations across America join with SCI to become River Friendly Churches. These churches commit to helping SCI through prayer, service, gift collection and distribution, and financial support. Click here to learn more.

 If you want to find out more about Ministry on the River and how you can help, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Click this icon to join SCI's Ministry on the River Group on Facebook.

Port Newark Center

SCI’s International Seafarers' Center, located in the heart of Port Newark, NJ serves the largest port complex on the East Coast. All seafarers and port workers, including truckers, stevedores, and warehouse workers, are welcome to this friendly and safe environment for relaxation, recreation, and spiritual refreshment. The Center is currently undergoing renovation, but SCI still offers services to mariners in a smaller, temporary structure next to the Center.

Hours of Operation:
M-F 0800 — 2200
Sat 1000 —2200
Sun 1400 — 2200

Take a Tour of the renovated International Seafarers’ Center
(click below to view the Center)

Since the 1960s, SCI's International Seafarers' Center has provided hospitality to nearly 60,000 mariners, truckers and port workers each year with a chapel, restaurant, conference rooms, telephones, Internet, recreation lounge, basketball courts and soccer field. Like a proud ship in need of dry dock, however, the facility is undergoing a $13 million renovation.

New technology will provide more Internet and phone access; upgraded recreation areas will enhance relaxation and community; refurbished meeting rooms will offer gathering spaces for large and small port groups; and a new fitness center will enable a welcome respite to the rigors of the job.

Cruise Ship Terminal Services

Cruise ships can carry crews numbering over 1,000. Precious hours for shore leave provide a connection to the outside world, and SCI operates on the front lines to greet the men and women of the cruise ship industry, providing a friendly face and useful information about the port and services available.

SCI’s Passenger Ship Terminal Hospitality Center staff members welcome thousands of cruise ship workers each year. SCI provides pastoral care and business services like wire transfers, calling cards, Internet, and cell phones whenever any cruise ship arrives.

SCI operates a Cruise Ship Terminal in Red Hook, Brooklyn at Pier 12, Building 112. For ship schedules as well as directions to the terminal, click here for NYCruise.com.

If you work onboard a cruise ship and need pastoral or legal assistance, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Bay Area Center

On July 1, 2009, SCI stretched across the North American continent and assumed management of the International Maritime Center (IMC) in the Bay Area of California, making it SCI’s seventh base of operations.

The International Maritime Center (SCI-Bay Area), based in the heart of the Port of Oakland, serves commercial ports in Oakland, San Francisco, Richmond, Redwood City, Antioch, Crockett, Martinez, Pittsburg, and Selby.

The Center provides a comfortable home-away-from-home and safe environment for relaxation, recreation, and spiritual refreshment to seafarers from distant lands, to port workers, including truckers and longshoremen, and to anyone who enters the IMC’s doors.

The IMC has a long history of serving Bay Area commercial ports since the 1960s. At its current location and in 2008 alone, the chaplains, staff, and volunteers have visited more than 1,120 vessels, directly assisted 8,300 seafarers on shore leave, and indirectly served an additional 28,000 seafarers by delivering books, newspapers, cell phones, films, and games to ships whose crews were unable to go ashore.

With SCI’s management, a refurbished facility now boasts upgraded technology for faster Internet connection and three new computers equipped with webcams and headsets. Complementary wireless Internet is also available for mariners and port workers using their own laptops. The Center’s hospitality includes pastoral care; business services like international telephone service and low cost phone cards, wire transfers, postcards and stamps; recreation, including basketball, table tennis, and billiards; snacks and refreshments; and transportation to local stores, port gates, and BART.

Click here for a map of the IMC in the Port.