An Offshore Parish

Tuesday July 4 2017

Jackie Macadam meets the chaplain to the UK oil and gas industry.

“EVERY offshore visit is different but I usually find it is best to meet with the workforce outside, at the actual workplace. People tend to be less inhibited outside and that is the place where they will tell me of their issues – or perhaps have a go at the church and religion!”

The Rev Gordon Craig is a minister but his parish is a bit different from the norm - sometimes travelling to his work by helicopter and to be found over 100 miles offshore, tending to his ‘flock’ – the men and women who work on the oil and gas rigs that serve the UK.

Though there are a few women work on the rigs, it’s very much a masculine environment, and Gordon’s time spent as a military chaplain with the RAF has stood him in good stead.

“One of my interests during the teenage years was aviation. I wanted to be a pilot. This wasn’t to be but this interest had a massive effect on my future ministry,” he explains.

“When I left school I began work as a trainee site manager with the Darlington Insulation Company. But was also feeling a strong pull towards the ministry and after four years I started studying for the ministry at Glasgow University in 1981.”

Gordon says: “When I was at university and discovered the RAF employed chaplains my old interest in aviation resurfaced and I was delighted to be accepted as a RAF Chaplain. I served for 24 years and view that time as a real privilege.

“Military chaplains are seen as an integral part of the service community and it is expected they will go where their people go. My family has lived in England, Wales, Scotland and Germany and through deployments I have been as far afield as the Falklands, Italy, Turkey, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan and the USA. I even spent some time on an aircraft carrier bobbing along on the North Sea which was a taste of things to come! 

“One of the great aspects of Military Chaplaincy is that you are supported and developed over the years. I followed a typical path.”

His involvement with the oil and gas industry began during a meeting of the Committee on Chaplains to HM Forces, when the committee was asked to advertise the vacancy of chaplain to the UK gas and oil industry. Gordon found himself called to the role and was subsequently appointed.

“My work revolves around my offshore trips. Every trip is different but I aim to brief the entire crew on the role of the Chaplaincy as soon as practical. In particular I inform them of the work of the Oil Chaplaincy Trust Fund. 

“This fund provides financial support to UK oil and gas industry workers, past and present, and their direct dependents, who find themselves in a position of hardship through no fault of their own. 

There’s plenty of variety offshore as well but there are hard times too, when his work requires him to attend to those who have died. 

“The hardest part of this ministry is supporting people in their loss. Like chaplaincy in any field the work means you are ministering to people of a working age. People of working age are not meant to die. …

“The Chaplaincy also maintains the industry’s Book of Remembrance and the names of all who die offshore are recorded in the book. I often make home visits to families across the UK to allow them to view their loved one’s details. 

“The book is updated once a year, in time for the industry’s annual Service of Remembrance on the first Saturday of November.

“During many months of the year I find myself conducting memorial services commemorating tragic events in the life of the industry. Families travel to Aberdeen to remember loved ones and we hold services in the Kirk of St Nicholas on Union St, the church which houses the ‘Oil Chapel’ containing our Book of Remembrance.”

“The best part of the job is meeting the people who work in the industry. There is a strong camaraderie among the offshore workforce and their sense of humour is brilliant. It feels very similar to the camaraderie I experienced in the RAF.

“There is no typical working week.”