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Mission to Seafarers, United Kingdom

f.k.a. Missions to Seamen

Status of the flag
Missions to Seamen

Status of the flag

The organisation now called 'Mission to Seafarers' was formerly known as the 'Missions to Seamen'. The 'flying angel' symbol is inherited from the Missions to Seamen flag. The Missions to Seamen changed its name to "The Mission to Seafarers" at a service of blessing and rededication in Westminster Abbey on 4th April 2001 in the presence of The Princess Royal, president of the society.

In July 2000 the society's members voted to change the name after representations from chaplains and liaison bishops around the world, said Canon Glyn Jones, the secretary general. The new name reflects the fact that there is only one mission - God's mission - and that the society serves seafarers of all nationalities and faiths, both men and women.

At the same time, the society's flying angel symbol has been modernised, the fifth change to the angel in the society's history. Canon Jones said the angel will still be instantly recognised by seafarers as representing a welcome, friendship, help and people they could trust.
André Coutanche, 21 October 2001

The new flag of the Mission to Seafarers [seen at the cathedral in Sydney, Australia] is similar to the old flag: ultramarine blue, with a stylized flying angel in white facing the fly at the centre, and with the words 'The Mission' and 'To Seafarers' in capital letters in white forming two arcs, one above the angel and one below.
Miles Li, 21 October 2001

Missions to Seamen

by André Coutanche

I have based the flag on the illustration in The Book of Flags by Campbell & Evans (1950).
André Coutanche, 10 June 2001