A Floating Church on the East River and the Mission That Grew From It
On a stretch of Manhattan shoreline in 1834, a small group of churchmen founded the Young Men's Church Missionary Society to care for seafarers working the port of New York. Within a decade they had built a floating chapel on the East River, then a second on the Hudson, and from that modest beginning grew what is today the largest and most comprehensive mariner and seafarer service agency in North America. The Seamen's Church Institute, still affiliated with the Episcopal Church but nondenominational in its trustees, staff, and the seafarers it welcomes, now operates from five locations across the United States and serves both the international crews calling at the Port of New York and New Jersey and the inland and Gulf Coast mariners who push tows along the Mississippi River system.
Its motto, "No Mariner Stands Alone," captures the institute's purpose: to bring pastoral care, education, advocacy, and a great deal of practical help to a workforce that moves more than 90 percent of everything Americans touch and yet remains, in the words of its president, "overlooked and underappreciated." Each year SCI chaplains visit more than 1,500 vessels in the Port of New York and New Jersey and over 250 underway vessels on America's inland waterways, train more than 2,000 mariners at its simulator centers, and connect thousands more to legal help, crisis counseling, suicide-intervention training, and gifts hand-knitted by volunteers across the country.
The Three-Legged Stool: Chaplaincy, Education, and Advocacy
The Rev. Mark S. Nestlehutt, SCI's president and executive director, often describes the institute's work as a three-legged stool: pastoral care, maritime education, and legal advocacy. Cut any one of those legs, he has said, and the work becomes lopsided. Pastoral care without training leaves mariners unprepared for the wheelhouse; training without advocacy leaves them without a voice in the laws and regulations that govern their work; advocacy without a chaplain on the pier is a voice without a presence.
SCI's three-legged stool rests on a fourth, quieter foundation: a network of volunteers, donors, corporate sponsors, and faith communities who knit, give, pack, and pray. The institute is a qualified 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Sustaining Sponsors contribute $100,000 or more annually and Supporting Sponsors at least $50,000. Among the current sustaining and supporting sponsors are Ingram Barge Company, Trinity Church of New York, American Bureau of Shipping, Kirby Corporation, Mediterranean Shipping Company, Moran Towing Corporation, and Tote Group, among others. Seward and Kissel LLP provides in-kind legal services.
Ministry on the River: A 24/7 Chaplaincy on America's Waterways
In 1998, SCI launched Ministry on the River, the only full-time pastoral care network dedicated to the inland mariners who move cargo on the Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, Cumberland, Illinois, and Kanawha rivers, the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, and the Houston Ship Channel. Today, three full-time MOR chaplains are stationed along the Mississippi River system and Gulf Coast, with chaplain associates in fourteen additional states. The MOR Supervisory Chaplain is based in Paducah, Kentucky, and coordinates coverage of the Upper Mississippi and Ohio River regions. Additional full-time chaplains are stationed in New Orleans, covering the Lower Mississippi and Gulf Coast, and in Houston, covering the Houston Ship Channel and Gulf Coast region. Beginning in late September 2026, the Rev. Charles Uhlik joins the team as SCI's newest chaplain serving the Upper Mississippi from St. Louis.
MOR chaplains are trained in Critical Incident Stress Management and Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST). They provide crisis response, mental health support, marriage and family counseling, career guidance, pre-marital counseling, wedding ceremonies, funerals, baptisms, christenings of new towboats, and connections to mentors and peers. They stand shoulder to shoulder with mariners on good days and on the worst days of their careers. A toll-free line, 800.708.1998, is answered around the clock, every day of the year. More than 75 percent of MOR's crisis responses in 2025 involved physical or mental health issues, far surpassing accident-related calls and pointing to a wellness crisis the institute is working to address across the inland industry.
MOR chaplains also manage much of the inland river and Gulf portion of the Christmas at Sea program, packing and personally delivering handmade knit gifts to mariners working aboard towboats, harbor tugs, and dredges who would otherwise spend the holidays far from family.
The Port of New York & New Jersey: A Welcome in the Heart of the Port
The Port of New York and New Jersey is the largest port on the East Coast of the United States. SCI's International Seafarers' Center, located at 118 Export Street in the heart of Port Newark, is the institute's home port. Originally built in the 1960s and renovated in 2010, the three-story center serves seafarers, truckers, stevedores, and warehouse workers with a chapel, lounge, workspace, fitness studio, recreation area with basketball, table tennis, pool, and a sports field. It is, as SCI notes, the only green space in the port.
Three full-time SCI chaplains staff the center, supported by chaplain associates, and make regular ship visits to engage with seafarers. They offer assistance with mental and physical well-being, arrange religious services on board, provide onboard or virtual spiritual guidance and counseling, and make available SIM cards and money-transfer services. Holy Communion and prayer are offered in English and Tagalog by Chaplain James Kollin, whose native language is Tagalog.
When seafarers come ashore, SCI vans provide free transportation Monday through Friday from 0800 to 2000 EST/EDT to the welcome center, terminal gates, and Jersey Gardens Mall. The center is open Monday through Friday from 0800 to 2100 and is closed on weekends. WhatsApp is monitored for seafarer inquiries during operational hours at +1 862.237.0016. After hours, seafarers in crisis may call the Port Authority Police NJ Marine Terminals at 973.578.2180 for emergencies.
The International Seafarers' Center and the Heart of Port Ministry
The center is the operational hub of SCI's international seafarer ministry, the home of the Christmas at Sea program, and the base for the legal team known today as the Center for Mariner Advocacy. It is also a gathering place for knitters, volunteers, and religious and civic groups who come by prior arrangement. SCI welcomes church and community groups who want to assemble gift bags and personalize Christmas cards in the fall, and offers tours of the facility as well as meeting and conference space for rent to local businesses and nonprofits.
Across the United States, SCI chaplains perform hospital visits for sick seafarers, escort family members to visit crew members onboard ship, and visit seafarers detained in hotels during litigation. They offer worship services, prayer, Holy Communion, and counseling onboard vessels at the request of the crew, and connect seafarers to SCI's Center for Mariner Advocacy when legal issues arise.
Christmas at Sea: 125 Years of Handmade Gifts
In 1898, as the Spanish-American War sent thousands of mariners off to sea over the holidays, SCI volunteers began knitting warm hats, scarves, and socks for them. The Christmas at Sea program, as it came to be known, has continued every year since, making it the longest continuously running knit program for mariners and seafarers in the world. Today, more than 1,000 individual crafters and 165 groups participate. Last year, SCI chaplains personally distributed more than 4,000 hand-sewn ditty bags at the Port of New York and New Jersey between Thanksgiving and Epiphany, and another 7,000 knit gifts reached inland mariners on the rivers and Gulf Coast through the Ministry on the River.
Each ditty bag contains two handmade knit or crocheted pieces, a Christmas card, and travel-size toiletries such as shampoo, conditioner, body wash, lip balm, and lotion, along with individually packaged candy or snacks, puzzle books or playing cards, and sometimes hot chocolate or microwave popcorn. Twelve ditty bags are packed into a single red Santa sack, then delivered to ships by SCI chaplains. For inland mariners, who live and work aboard their boats for 28 days at a stretch, the gifts are mailed to SCI chaplains who pack a box for each boat with a knit for each mariner.
Volunteers are encouraged to use SCI's own patterns, which are designed to complement the safety gear worn onboard vessels and to avoid tassels, pompoms, braids, fringe, or excessive length that could snag on equipment. Bright colors are welcome and do not pose a security issue. Patterns range from beginner to advanced and include the 1898 Hat, the Anchors Aweigh Hat, the Seafarer's Watch Cap, the Seafarer's Scarf, the Helmet, the Cowl, the Crochet Inspiration Scarf, and many more. A free CAS Handbook explains the program and includes the patterns.
Those who need help with a pattern can request a CAS Angel, an experienced volunteer knitter or crocheter who mentors others by email or phone. The angels form an international group that, as of June 2025, included crafters from Arkansas, North Carolina, Maine, Kansas, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Indiana, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, the United Kingdom, Nebraska, and New Jersey. Knitters who purchase yarn from Jimmy Beans Wool and donate the finished item can receive 20 percent of the cost back as account credit.
Donations of new, unused travel-size toiletries and individually packaged non-perishable snacks are welcomed year-round at the International Seafarers' Center, and Amazon shoppers can support the program through SCI's wish list and by designating the Seamen's Church of NY and NJ as their AmazonSmile charity. Port Packing Day at the ISC each fall is a holiday tradition for many local groups, who gather around an enormous work table as SCI staff plays Christmas music and serves beverages and treats.
The Center for Maritime Education: Simulators in Paducah and Houston
SCI has trained mariners since 1899, when it began offering basic and advanced navigation courses in lower Manhattan. During the First World War it ramped up to meet the urgent demand for qualified merchant seafarers, expanding its Navigation and Marine Engineering School through the roof of its 12-story headquarters at 25 South Street to add rooftop instruction and pilothouse training. Today, all of SCI's maritime education is conducted at two campuses: CME-Paducah in Kentucky, opened in 1997, and CME-Houston in Texas, opened in 2001.
Both campuses feature state-of-the-art full-mission bridge simulators that model the captain or pilot's actual work environment, complete with traditional steering levers, conventional throttles, and emerging z-drive azimuth thruster systems. CME's geographic databases include major navigation areas along the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and the Western Rivers, and a full range of vessels and tow configurations. Each year, SCI trains more than 600 mariners in Houston and more than 1,000 in Paducah, and an additional 9,000 mariners complete online education through SCI eLearning. CME instructors are active or former licensed mariners themselves, including a former U.S. Navy officer who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, captains with decades of inland and offshore experience, and a simulation database manager who builds custom 3D environments for feasibility studies.
CME also produces feasibility studies for engineers, port authorities, and transportation agencies. Using the simulators, experienced mariners run proposed bridge, dock, berth, and vessel designs through dozens of real-world scenarios, varying currents, day and night conditions, and vessel loading. Their feedback is folded back into modified designs that are then tested again, often before permit applications are submitted. Since 2004, CME has completed 28 major feasibility studies supporting bridges, ports, docks, terminals, channel modifications, and other waterway navigation projects across the country.
In January 2017, CME became the first maritime training center in the United States to receive ISO 9001 certification for its quality management system. In 2026, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration designated CME a Center of Excellence for Domestic Maritime Workforce Training and Education, a five-year recognition of the institute's role in preparing the inland and near-coastal maritime workforce.
The Paducah facility, at the confluence of the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers and 30 miles from the Mississippi, occupies part of a historic waterfront building and houses four training bridges, conference rooms, classrooms, a full kitchen and dining area, and a chapel. The Houston facility, located in America's energy capital along the Houston Ship Channel, offers five training bridges, conference rooms, classrooms, and a full kitchen and dining area.
The Center for Mariner Advocacy: The World's Only Free Legal Aid for Merchant Mariners
SCI's Center for Mariner Advocacy, formerly the Center for Seafarers' Rights, operates the world's only free legal-aid service devoted exclusively to the needs of merchant mariners. On a daily basis, CMA assists seafarers with concerns regarding working conditions, compensation, and rights. Based in New Orleans and directed by Philip C. Schifflin, Jr., Esq., a former United States Coast Guard captain of the Port of New Orleans and senior legal counsel for Coast Guard District 8, CMA also teaches and writes materials for chaplains' schools, seafarers' ministries, and international conferences.
CMA works at the international level, regularly participating in meetings at the International Maritime Organization, the International Labour Organization, the United States Congress, and other countries' legislative deliberations relating to seafarers' issues. Its advocacy helped introduce amendments to the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006, addressing properly fitting personal protective equipment for female mariners and expanding seafarer access to internet and shore leave. CMA also supports new guidelines for the fair treatment of seafarers detained in connection with alleged crimes, assists in cases of seafarer abandonment, and helps resolve repatriation issues. Seafarers in need can reach CMA at +1 504.229.9122 or by email.
Douglas B. Stevenson, Esq., who directed the Center for Seafarers' Rights for 29 years before his retirement, now serves as Director Emeritus of CMA. Over his career he developed an international reputation for work on stowaways, maritime security, shore leave, piracy, environmental crimes, and seafarer abandonment, and served as Chair of the ICMA delegation to the ILO and Vice-chair of the ICMA delegation to the IMO.
ASIST Training: Suicide Intervention Skills for the Maritime Community
Several times each year, and at locations throughout the United States, SCI offers Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training, the world's leading suicide intervention workshop. ASIST is a two-day, 15-hour interactive program that teaches participants to recognize when someone may be thinking about suicide and to work with them on a plan for immediate safety. The program is supported by independent and peer-reviewed studies and is open to anyone age 16 or older, with at least two registered LivingWorks trainers leading each session.
At the Water's Edge: New Resources for Maritime Chaplaincy
In partnership with the Episcopal Church's United Thank Offering, SCI published At the Water's Edge: Case Studies in Maritime Chaplaincy, a competency-based resource developed under the leadership of the Rev. Dr. David Fleenor. The case study volume is designed to strengthen pastoral judgment and prepare new and experienced chaplains for the realities of maritime ministry, whether on inland rivers or international shipping lanes. The Rev. Dr. Fleenor presented findings from his research at the 2026 North American Maritime Ministry Association Conference in Philadelphia.
Values, Governance, and the Board of Trustees
In 2024, as part of its latest strategic plan, SCI identified three core values: Compassion, the recognition that mariners and seafarers are people with real needs, demanding work, and a vital contribution to world commerce; Dependability, the resolve to always stand with mariners in support of the human element within the maritime community; and Integrity, the commitment to transparency, professionalism, and purpose in every program.
SCI is governed by a Board of Trustees chaired by Mark K. Knoy, with RADM Philip Greene, USN Ret., as Vice Chair, Richard T. du Moulin as Vice President, the Rev. Kristin Kaulbach Miles as Clerical Vice President, Tava Foret as Secretary, and Timothy J. Casey as Treasurer. The Rev. Mark S. Nestlehutt serves as President and Executive Director. The Rt. Rev. Matthew Heyd serves as Honorary Chairman. The Board's membership includes active and retired maritime industry leaders, Coast Guard officers, and Episcopal clergy. SCI is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization; its EIN is 13-5562356.
Publications and the Wider Story
SCI publishes The Lookout, a semiannual magazine that has chronicled the maritime industry and the institute's work since May 1910, and The Knit Before Christmas, a biannual publication for Christmas at Sea volunteers. The Masthead is SCI's monthly e-newsletter, and each issue is also available as an audio recording. Annual reports dating back to 2022 are available online, and the institute maintains an extensive digital archive through its professional archive library.
Joining the Work
Mariners depend on SCI, and SCI depends on the generosity of donors, volunteers, and corporate sponsors. Individuals can give online, by mail to the New York development office, or through recurring gifts, gifts of appreciated securities, or planned giving options including bequests, beneficiary designations, charitable remainder trusts, charitable lead trusts, life reserved agreements of real estate, and IRA charitable rollovers. Members of the Roper Legacy Society are those who have included SCI in their estate plans; the society honors Janet Lord Roper, SCI's beloved House Mother from 1915 to 1943, who ran the Missing Seamen's Bureau and located more than 6,500 seafarers before her death.
Volunteers can knit, crochet, or sew for Christmas at Sea; mentor new crafters as CAS Angels; collect travel-size toiletries and individually packaged treats; serve as Chaplain Associates alongside SCI's clergy; staff the front desk at the International Seafarers' Center in Port Newark; or become a Mariner Friendly Church that gathers items for mariners and connects congregants to the institute's work. Corporations and event sponsors can support the Silver Bell Awards Dinner in New York City, the River Bell Awards Luncheon in Paducah, the Maritime Bell Luncheon in Houston, or the SCI Mountain Challenge in Maine.
Jobs at SCI span chaplaincy, maritime education, legal advocacy, and nonprofit leadership. The institute offers competitive pay, comprehensive health insurance, a matching 403(b) retirement savings plan, and paid time off.