SEA Sunday, led by the lay team with speaker David Major (reader), has been celebrated at Hemyock Parish Church.

Sea Sunday is a global celebration of the enduring and vital work of the Mission to Seafarers which has taken place for more than 160 years.

It provides help and support to the 1.5 million men and women who face danger every day in bringing goods to this and other countries, keeping the global economy afloat.

St Mary’s had a display of artefacts, papers, photos, books and so on for the congregation to see.

These had been supplied by Brian Samuels and sisters Patricia Fuller and Janice Bawler who have all had family and friends involved in life at sea.

One item belonging to the women was dated from 1904 and showed their grandfather’s numerous voyages around the world from Argentina to China.

It was also known that when the Titanic sank his ship would have been close enough to help in the rescue of those involved had the ship had a radio system. The crew were not aware of the tragedy until they returned to port.

Brian’s father had served on Cunard’s MV Georgic. This was shown in a photo display which featured prints of the Royal group of docks area, London, which included Brian’s grandparents’ house, a large part of his childhood, which was bombed during Second World War.

Mission to Seafarers provides a global network of chaplains, staff and volunteers to offer practical, emotional and spiritual support to seafarers through ship visits, drop-in centres, and a range of welfare and emergency support.

Further information about its work can be found at www.missiontoseafarers.org