Diary of a Port Chaplain

Karen Parsons, Port Chaplain in Galveston, Texas, writes lovingly about seafarers as people whose job, in many cases, promotes loneliness, desperation, and a sense of having been abandoned. She weaves her own spiritual journey and the lives and spiritual journeys of seafarers she has met as port chaplain into a book that opens their world to our understanding.

Karen Parsons OFS is a Catholic Ecclesial Lay Minister serving as an Apostleship of the Sea chaplain in the ports of Galveston and Texas City, Texas. She began her port ministry career over 29 years ago in the port of Detroit, Michigan. In Diary of a Port Chaplain, Karen writes lovingly about seafarers as people whose job, in many cases, promotes loneliness, desperation, and a sense of having been abandoned. She weaves her own spiritual journey and the lives and spiritual journeys of seafarers she has met as port chaplain into a book that opens their world to our understanding.

Karen Parsons OFS is a Catholic Ecclesial Lay Minister serving as an Apostleship of the Sea chaplain in the ports of Galveston and Texas City, Texas. She began her port ministry career over 29 years ago in the port of Detroit, Michigan. Karen is a graduate of and has been on the faculty of the Houston Port Chaplaincy School since 1990. She has also conducted seminars and workshops in South Africa, Australia, and Brazil and has travelled to every continent except Antarctica for training in this field. She received her certification in Spiritual Direction through the Spiritual Direction Institute in Houston in 2007.