AoS appoints Bishop Paul Mason as new Bishop Promoter

Bishop Paul Mason

Bishop Paul Mason, Auxiliary Bishop of Southwark, has been appointed new Bishop Promoter for the Apostleship of the Sea (AoS) in England & Wales. He takes over from Bishop Tom Burns SM, Bishop of Menevia.

Born in North Shields, Tyne & Wear, close to the coast, Bishop Mason was very aware of the ship building tradition around the Tyne, and many of his schoolmates' fathers worked at Swan Hunter in Wallsend.

Moving away from the North East in 1982 and away from the sea, his next encounter with shipping was at quite the other end of the scale - he was asked by AoS if he would be available to work as a chaplain on a cruise ship and went on board during Easter and Christmas in 2012 and 2013.

“Like many, I did not appreciate the unseen work of thousands upon thousands of seafarers, and so many are Catholic,” says Bishop Mason.

“When you say Mass at midnight (at end of the crews’ working day) and you have a large congregation down in the bowels of the vessel singing Silent Night in Force 8 gales, the enthusiasm and devotion is quite overwhelming...and the irony doesn't escape you. And of course, each of those voices has a story.

“The focus of the chaplain is on the crew, at sea for months, working long hours and far from family, friends and the Sacraments,” he adds.

Bishop Mason says: “The support AoS offers up and down the country to all seafarers is by and large unseen, just as those to whom they minster can be unseen.

“It is vital work that brings practical help, prayer, sacramental care and fellowship to so many. As Bishop Promoter I hope I will be able to continue the long tradition we have in the Church of supporting seafarers and ensuring they do not remain unseen.”

Bishop Paul celebrated his first Mass as AoS Bishop Promoter for England & Wales at the charity’s national conference on May 10.

The three-day event was held at Swanwick in Derbyshire and saw a gathering of almost 200 people, including trustees, port chaplains, volunteer ship visitors, parish contacts and head office staff.

Delegates came together to discuss pertinent issues including seafarers’ health on board and how AoS and the Church can work together with the authorities to help seafarers and fishermen who become victims of modern slavery.

In his homily, Bishop Mason reflected on the Gospel reading in which Jesus’ disciples wake him from His sleep and asks Him to calm the storm.

He said, “As AoS port chaplains and ship visitors, you get the opportunity to go on board ships to celebrate Mass for seafarers, take them the Sacraments, to keep Christ alive and awake in their lives. This is very important and great work.

“However, often we can run around doing a million things in the Church, but if Christ has gone to sleep in us, all this just becomes noise and activity.

“If Christ is alive in us, we have power, and when we are rooted in prayer the work that we do will have power.

“When we visit seafarers on ships, it’s not just at the level of let’s go and give people food and smile at them. That’s good to a certain point, but we’re trying to do something more – to love people but to love them with God’s love.”

Bishop Mason added as a Catholic organisation that ministers to seafarers, AoS members sometimes come across seafarers who are caught in a cycle of never being able to make any headway due to circumstances beyond their control.

“For them, there can be a sense of losing trust, so to be able to so support seafarers so they can maintain that trust is a wonderful and vital work of the Church.

“We pray for seafarers that they will have an abiding sense that they are anchored in Christ. It may seem like He’s asleep but in fact He is a bedrock that is constantly awake in their lives to give them power in all that they do and all we do.”

* Sea Sunday this year is on 9 July. Please pray for and remember seafarers on this special day.

Read more about the Apostleship of the Sea here: www.apostleshipofthesea.org.uk