About AOS
Cultural exchange in Tilbury
Fr Patsy Foley, AOS port chaplain in Tilbury, sees himself as a missionary
He specifies that this is not in the old-fashioned sense of building churches, which he once did in Africa, but in a very personal sense of offering himself as a witness. His role now is to build bridges, to resolve conflict, to heal existing divisions and to prevent new ones from forming. For Fr Patsy, a commitment to ecumenism and interfaith dialogue, is indispensible.
"There is no place for racism, discrimination, oppression or bullying in Christianity".
Forty years ago Fr Patsy was ordained in St Patrick's Missionary Society, also known as the Kiltegan Fathers. He went out to Africa to teach but, he says
"I learned far more than I ever taught".
In Fr Patsy's eyes, those to whom he went to teach the Gospel were already "real Christians", demonstrating Christian values in their acceptance of strangers and their behaviour to each other. He says
"Seafarers also have so much to teach us about tolerance".
|
On any ship there may be up to five or six different nationalities. People with little common language and no shared culture or religion co-exist in the confined space of a ship. Life onboard is demanding and yet, according to Fr Patsy, seafarers not only co-operate, but "work together exceedingly well".
A Korean story
A simple example from port life demonstrates the missionary role of the chaplain. Two Korean seafarers came into the port of Tilbury. They spoke very little English but seemed to want to go to central London. Fr Patsy offered to take them to Tilbury station. The seafarers were reluctant as, perhaps due to the language barrier, they seemed not to know who he was or whether they could trust him.
So Fr Patsy searched for a way to bridge the cultural divide. He knew four words of the Korean language, learned on a visit there twenty years previously. Pointing to himself he pronounced one of them, "shimbunim".
"Ah, shimbunim", exclaimed one of the seafarers, suddenly understanding.
"Shimbunim", "priest".
Through a combination of words and gestures the seafarer managed to convey that he was not a Catholic but his wife at home in Korea was. The two seafarers forgot about going to London and insisted Fr Patsy join them onboard their ship for coffee. Having gone out to the port to offer welcome, Fr Patsy found the roles reversed. Now he was the guest, welcomed into the seafarers' home. Drawing on his Korean vocabulary, he told his hosts that he liked the Korean delicacy of kimchi, pickled vegetables. He was immediately invited to return for dinner the next day.
The following day, the Korean seafarers came to the seafarers' centre to use the telephones. Fr Patsy brought them back to their ship and was invited onboard. However, they found that the Marine Coastal Agency was carrying out an inspection and all crew were required to work. As a chaplain must take great care not to disturb the life of the ship, Fr Patsy took his leave. On this occasion he did not get his kimchi but he certainly bridged the cultural divide.