NY Times, USA - Heading into retirement, the Rev. Dr. Robert C. Bradford got a call from a fellow minister with an intriguing proposal: he should take a cruise.
“But cruising the ocean is only for the rich and famous,” Dr. Bradford, an American Baptist minister who lives in Arlington, Wash., recalled thinking. That, by his count, was 47 cruises and 452 days on the ocean ago.
Dr. Bradford is not rich, and, two decades after that first cruise, he is still not completely retired. He is one of hundreds of clerics, many retired from their landlocked flocks, who take to the seas to tend to cruise ship passengers.
Such arrangements have become more common and formally structured in recent years.
Roman Catholic Masses are the most heavily attended onboard activity, said Robert Vazquez, who is in charge of cruise activities for Celebrity Cruises. A Mass can attract 80 to 100 people on a weekday and more than 200 on Sundays, Mr. Vazquez said, adding that the fact that a Catholic priest is on board every Celebrity ship is the most common positive comment from passengers.
Every cruise line has a different policy on what sort of cleric sails and when, with many using nonprofit organizations or the same booking agents they use for, say, dance hall singers, to schedule ministers.
The Apostleship of the Sea in the United States, a Catholic port ministry established in 1920, has long ministered to fishermen, dock workers and those on oil rigs, but several years ago it began maintaining a database of suitable priests and making recommendations to cruise lines.
Though clerics are usually not paid for their work on board, they are often given free rooms and food. Because of this, said Doreen Babeaux, a spokeswoman for the Apostleship of the Sea in Port Arthur, Tex., people posing as priests are a problem. She said the list of ordained priests, which has run from 600 to 700 depending on the time of year, culls out priests with drinking problems, lest they be tempted in an environment where alcohol tends to flow.
“We really want to put our best foot forward,” Mrs. Babeaux said, adding that most of the priests were retired or on sabbatical. One sails on cruises full time, and others take working vacations.
The Apostleship does not require priests to wear clerical garb at all times on board, but they do ask them to wear ID badges so passengers have no doubt that they are there in an official capacity.
Catholic priests are the most common cleric on board for a number of reasons. They are required for Catholic Mass, but can also conduct interfaith services. In addition, many crew members, some of whom can be on ship for months, are Catholic.
Carol Cartmell was a Salvation Army soldier and travel agent with a large Christian clientele when she realized that there was a large unmet demand for cruise clerics. With the Salvation Army’s help, Mrs. Cartmell started a program called Pastors @ Sea that provides ministers for several cruise lines. Like the Apostleship, she charges neither the clerics nor the cruise lines. But booking agents are also getting involved. Dr. Bradford schedules his cruises through Pastors @ Sea and through a booking agent.
Helen Kelly owns Lectures International, a booking agent in Coronado, Calif., that sends bridge directors, lecturers and about 30 Protestant ministers on cruises each month. She charges the ministers $25 to $50 dollars a day, a fee that can include a spouse.
Bramson Entertainment Bureau in Manhattan books entertainment talent and rabbis for cruise lines. “We look for cruising experience so they are not completely shocked when they get on board,” said Valerie Moreland, who helps coordinate the ship clergy program for Bramson.
When a cruise becomes available, the agency sends an e-mail message to several hundred registered rabbis, and then it is first come, first served. There is a $25-a-day fee. Many of the cruise lines book rabbis for major Jewish holidays.
Rabbi Charles Mintz of San Mateo, Calif., does four-month world cruises for Holland America and will sail from Rome through the Mediterranean and on to New York during this year’s High Holy Days.
“It’s very difficult work,” Rabbi Mintz said, laughing, “but some poor sop has to do it.”
Rabbi Mintz, 76, said the cruises made for a “marvelous” retirement, allowing him to see the world with his wife, Adele, while staying active in rabbinical work. He said that with an older client base, cruises have a need for clerics to deal with issues like illness and death, which sometimes arise on board.
Rabbi Mintz, an opera buff, also lectures about opera on cruises. He said the work can offer surprises. One passenger needed kosher food off the coast of South Africa. When the ship docked, Rabbi Mintz and the Holland America chef roamed local shops. They came back with a week’s worth of kosher food.
Lyan Sierra-Caro, a spokeswoman for Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises, said that Seders tended to attract 50 to 75 passengers. Mr. Vazquez said rabbis were on board for Hanukkah, and for Christmas when the two holidays did not coincide. That way, during Christmas Mass, the rabbi can lead an informal Champagne toast and social mixer so no one feels out of place.
Dr. Bradford said he never felt out of place on board. He said that his ministry at sea was sometimes limited by time and space, but that there were always people in need. He has dealt with three deaths on board, spending the journey to port with the surviving spouses, no matter their religion.
He wrote of his cruise ship ministry in the publication Ministry. “There were a lot of responses,” Dr. Bradford said. “Now every minister in the nation wants to get on a cruise.”