Welcome to the
NAMMA website
 NAMMA is an ecumenical, Christian association of individuals and organizations involved in maritime ministry throughout North America, including the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. Founded in 1932 as the National Group of Seamen’s Agencies, it was renamed NAMMA in 1991. Its mission is to provide a framework to support and assist port chaplains and others in their ministry to the spiritual, moral, human rights, and physical concerns of mariners and all others in the maritime community.
NAMMA helps equip port chaplains with the resources needed to carry on their ministry. It acts as a consultant and coordinator for services and training, as well as providing standards for these services.
NAMMA includes many ministries from a wide variety of denominations, as well as the maritime ministries of North America: Apostleship of the Sea (Roman Catholic), The Mission to Seafarers (Episcopal and Anglican). NAMMA's members include 41 major maritime ministry agencies and approximately 150 member chaplains.
Seamen SOS
Help for seafarers.
 Template for the ICMA Online Directory
Click here to see the ICMA Online Directory template. (Please fill it out ONLY for agencies, not individual chaplains.) Send it to Rev. Hennie La Grange after filling it out. Click here for his contact information
 The International Committee on Seafarers' Welfare (ICSW) launches the first International Seafarers' Welfare Awards.
The awards will recognize shipping companies, ports, welfare organizations and individuals who provide exceptional welfare facilities and services to seafarers on land or at sea. They will be presented by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Secretary General, Admiral Efthimios Mitropoulos, at an event in London on 1 December 2010. Click here to learn more about the ICSW International Seafarer's Welfare Awards.
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 Book your flights today to our annual conference!
August 6–9, 2012 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
THEME: Stepping Out of the Boat – Faith, Passion, and Practicalities in Maritime Ministry. To learn more, click on the following links:
 Membership
NAMMA Membership Directory, updated as of July 7, 2011.
Membership form for 2012 in PDF format. Use it to renew your membership now! Simply print it out and mail it in with your check.
Seafarer Shore Leave Access Implementation Issues under TWIC
Click here to read "Seafarer Shore Leave Access Implementation Issue under TWIC" by Jim Von Dreele and Mary Davisson, written in March 2011.
 Report on Port-Based Welfare Workers
This report was funded by the ITF and has important implications and information about how seafarer welfare chaplains and agencies work world-wide.
Piracy Petition Presented
 At World Maritime Day celebrations, a petition signed by more than a million persons, calling for an end to piracy, was handed over to the secretary general of the International Maritime Organization. At the handing over ceremony, ISF president Spyros Polemis explained that the inter-industry petition was organised by 17 different shipping bodies. They included BIMCO, INTERCARGO, INTERTANKO, ICS, ISF, IPTA, IMEC, InterManager, SIGTTO, IUMI, IFSMA and the IG of P&I Clubs, as well as ASF, ECSA, ICMA and ICSW. These were in addition to the ITF, who coordinated the petition.
Since the crisis began in 2008, over 1,500 seafarers have so far been taken hostage by Somali pirates, often for months at a time and in truly awful conditions - a situation which is simply unacceptable. Our primary concern is humanitarian. As the number of pirates continues to increase in the knowledge they can act with virtual impunity, what kind of signal will be given if a large section of the Indian Ocean is closed to the movement of global trade, some 90% of which is carried by sea? |
