Members of the Atlantis II crew

Anglican’s have been ministering to seafarers since 1835 when the young Anglican priest Fr. John Ashley began the ministry on Bristol Channel, England. The formal “Mission to Seamen” organization was created in 1855 and today there are 300 missions, serving every major and many minor ports around the world.

Now known as the “Mission to Seafarers”, Vancouver’s ministry began in 1897 when Fr. Clinton at St. James Anglican Church founded the “Seamen’s Institute” to care for sailors. It joined the world-wide mission in 1903 and hung out the “Flying Angel Club” sign which tells seafarers around the world they will find a safe haven, hospitality, communications facilities to help them contact family and pastoral support as they visit strange ports.

The ministry has operated in various locations during the past century, in New Westminster, in old houses along Hastings Street, in North Vancouver, in a bus, and currently is located in two venues, a Hasting Mill heritage house on Vancouver’s Waterfront Road (Burrard Inlet) and a recently expanded double-wide trailer facility at Roberts Bank in Delta. Nearly 70,000 seafarers enter Vancouver’s ports annually and about 15,000 visit the two centres which are open seven days a week.

The Mission’s ecumenical partners are the Christian Reformed Church, the Roman Catholic Church and the Korean Presbyterian Church. The mission is completely dependent on financial support from the maritime sector, church organizations, foundations and individual donors. Volunteers are an important part of the ministry to seafarers in Vancouver.

For more information, call the mission at 253-4421, or visit its website at www.flyingangel.ca.

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