A new web resource for the marine chaplains of the UGCC

The Union of Marine Chaplains of the UGCC in Australia and New Zealand officially presents its new internet-portal, www.vmission.net, through which it carries out pastoral work. The primary purpose of the web project is to make preaching God’s word among sailors more practical and popular. Marine chaplains hope that this initiative will make a considerable advancement in the work and spiritual support of sailors. Chaplains work with Ukrainian sailors who arrive in ports of Australia on ships of other countries. The marine chaplains of the UGCC are included in the world union of the marine apostolate, where they share the general ideals:  1. to provide for the spiritual, social and financial welfare of sailors of the merchant and passenger fleet, fishermen, and their families, regardless of their cultural, national or religious allegiance; 2. to help sailors conduct a Christian life onboard the ship. Today the marine chaplains of the UGCC in Australia work in the four ports of the continent: Melbourne, Adelaide, Newcastle, and Brisbane. At the same time there is cooperation with chaplains in Ukraine and the international network of Catholic chaplains Apostolate of the Sea and Stella Maris. As the director of the Union of Marine Chaplains of Australia, Fr. Olexander Kenez, noted, for a few years there has been close cooperation with the International Transport Workers' Federation. Thanks to this, priest-chaplains have the possibility to become acquainted closer with sailors and their problems. The chaplains note that the difficulty repeatedly arises that, in order to communicate with sailors, in fact their work is more concentrated on the sea than on the land. Even during a ship’s stay at port, it is hard for a priest to meet with a sailor, as they are obliged to execute work onboard. Actually, because of this there was a desire to create a web-resource which would become a «virtual parish» for the sailor. As the director of the Union of Marine Chaplains of Australia, Fr. Oleksandr Kenez, notes, the web-resource www.vmission.net works in two modes: reading and listening. There are spiritual works posted on it, recipes of foods for Christmas and Easter, books which are related to the professional activity of a sailor, and the visitor also has the possibility to make requests about prayer and other things. The audio-catalogue contains sermons, religious songs and short radio programs of a spiritual character (podcast). The site is in two languages: Ukrainian and English.

Reported by Fr. Olexander Kenez

Addition:
Contacts:
Fr. Olexander Kenez – director of the Union of Marine Chaplains of the UGCC in Australia and New Zealand.
e-mail: [email protected]
tel: 0413097652  б +61413097652
Skype,  o.Оlexander