SERVICE MARKS 150 YEARS OF THE MISSION TO SEAFARERS IN IRELAND

A service in St Ann’s Church, Dawson Street, Dublin on Saturday 2 June at 3:30pm will mark the 150th Anniversary of the foundation of the Mission to Seafarers in Ireland and will give thanks for the dedicated and committed people who inspired its foundation in 1857, and who have carried out its ministry over the last century and a half.

The Mission’s story goes back to John Ashley, a young Anglican clergyman, who, in the 1830s, was so moved by the isolation and terrible conditions in which seafarers lived that he gave up a secure parish appointment to devote his life to their care. In the years that followed, other individuals also heard the cry for help from seafarers and were inspired to do similar work. Then, in 1856, it was decided that these ministries should be grouped together under one name: The Missions to Seamen. The first mission in Ireland was founded the following years and presently it resides at St Ann’s, Dawson Street, which as part of this role holds the Church of Ireland Chaplaincy to Dublin Port.

The address at the service will be given by the Revd Canon Douglas Goddard, Senior Chaplain at the Mission to Seafarers, Northern Ireland.

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