Relationships were at the centre of Mark Nestlehutt’s reflections as the ICMA North Europe Regional Meeting 2026 drew to a close. Having participated throughout the meeting on September 23-25 and listened to the presentations and discussions, Nestlehutt, President and CEO of The Seamen’s Church Institute and current Chair of the ICMA Trustees, offered words of encouragement and perspective on what he had heard.
“Great to be together,” he began. “Normally I talk about ‘isms’. Ecumenism, proselytism. Today I will talk about relationships.”
It was a fitting theme for a gathering that had brought together people engaged in seafarers’ welfare across Northern Europe. For Nestlehutt, the conversations during the meeting demonstrated how relationships operate at many different levels, from the personal connection between a chaplain and an individual seafarer to cooperation between welfare organisations, governments and international bodies.
At the most personal level, he recalled one of the stories shared during the meeting about a Norwegian chaplain whose relationship with a seafarer allowed the chaplain to offer direct support when it was needed.
“Yesterday we heard that great story of the Norwegian chaplain who knew a seafarer well enough to call and support directly.”
At the other end of the scale are the relationships that seafarers’ welfare organisations build with institutions such as the IMO and ILO, governments, other societies and secular partners. Nestlehutt noted that these partnerships can be particularly important at a time when many organisations feel that their work is underfunded.
Between those two levels, however, lies another set of relationships that Nestlehutt sees as essential: the connections between chaplains, welfare workers and ICMA member organisations themselves.
“We know that we are greater than the sum of our parts,” he said.
That cooperation has practical consequences for seafarers. A chaplain visiting a ship may meet someone who appears to need additional attention or support. The chaplain may not know exactly what is wrong, but if the ship is moving on to another port, a relationship with a chaplain there can help ensure that the seafarer is not forgotten.
Because no single organisation can be represented in every port, that next contact may come from another society entirely. For Nestlehutt, this ability to reach beyond organisational boundaries is one of ICMA’s defining strengths.
“We are in so many ports around the globe that we can reach out to other chaplains through ICMA, and say, ‘Hey, we might not share confidential information, but we can share sort of our concerns, and we can make sure that we can look after each other.’ That is, I think, the great strength of ICMA.”
Nestlehutt also reflected on how seafarers’ ministry itself has changed. Many maritime ministries were originally established to care for seafarers from their own countries who were travelling around the world. Today, the people arriving in a European port may come from China, India, the Philippines or many other parts of the world. Shipping is global, and the same seafarer may encounter different ICMA members during a single voyage.
That reality makes cooperation increasingly important. It also reinforces a principle that has been part of ICMA since its creation: organisations with different histories and traditions can accomplish more for seafarers by working together.
Nestlehutt placed this cooperation within ICMA’s history, recalling the development of ecumenical cooperation in seafarers’ ministry and the creation of ICMA in 1969. He also pointed to the importance of the Roman Catholic Church’s participation alongside Protestant churches and organisations, which helped establish a genuinely broad ecumenical approach to maritime ministry.
That history continues to have practical meaning today. Cooperation is not simply an institutional principle. It shapes how chaplains and welfare workers respond to the people they meet on board ships and in seafarers’ centres.
Nestlehutt connected this responsibility with another recurring theme from the meeting: social justice. Conditions and compensation can differ greatly among seafarers depending on nationality, employment arrangements and other circumstances. For maritime welfare organisations, he suggested, responsibility does not stop with seafarers from their own country or tradition.
“I think for us in this room, it is our concern, and so we look after seafarers because we see a little bit of the divine glimpse or the glimpse of the divine in every single person who comes in front of us, and we actually see them, and we actually listen to them and hear them, and that’s so that we can recognise their humanity, and that’s who we are serving.”
He continued with a simple statement of the principle underlying that work.
“And it doesn’t matter what the nationality is, what flag they’re sailing under. When they sail into our ports, we treat each and every one of them with the dignity and respect that they demand and deserve.”
His closing reflections also recognised that relationships are not built only through formal presentations, meetings or organisational structures. Regional gatherings create space for people doing similar work in different places to get to know one another personally. Those informal conversations can later become the foundation for cooperation when a seafarer needs help.
“I really enjoy sort of getting to talk to people in the sauna with a beer, or sitting around the table over meals, or just sitting in the bar and catching up with people because I think that’s also on the margins when we build these relationships.”
Nestlehutt also expressed appreciation for the team that made the North Europe gathering possible. Reflecting on his participation in ICMA regional meetings in Latin America and Asia, as well as the ICMA World Conference in Barcelona, he highlighted how each gathering provides another opportunity to strengthen connections across the international maritime welfare community.
The North Europe Regional Meeting offered that opportunity once again. Presentations and discussions provided knowledge and perspectives, but Nestlehutt’s closing words brought the focus back to the relationships that allow that knowledge to become action.
For ICMA, those relationships stretch from one chaplain remembering the name and needs of one seafarer to an international network capable of continuing that care as ships move from port to port and country to country.
Nestlehutt concluded by thanking those gathered for their work and participation.
“I really love all of the work that you do.”