Travelers were speed-walking through Terminal 1's baggage claim at St. Louis Lambert International Airport to quickly find their luggage. Others stopped and greeted their loved ones before they picked up their bags. They all passed right by the airport's hidden-in-plain-sight chapel.
Airport chaplains said that this is common, but that their ministry is not only inside the chapel, it also involves being a presence outside it.
"We do everything, body, mind and spirit," said Deacon Maurice Milne, deputy airport chaplain. "We're really a ministry of presence, so that if people have anxiety, they call us."
Milne has been an airport chaplain for two years and said every shift is different. As employees pass him in the hallways, he says kind words, asking about their families and how their day is going. He said this allows him to quickly check in and show compassion for the airport's thousands of employees who are often under intense stress.
There are employees travelers never speak to, which can make them feel invisible, he said.
"[A woman] was cleaning the floor, and people kept walking through her cones, and you could tell she was getting frustrated. So I came up to her, and I said, 'Hi, how are you doing?' and … I asked, 'Have you ever danced with your mop?'" Milne said. "I got her to smile, and she had a little bit of hope."
Milne is one of 12 volunteer chaplains with St. Louis Lambert International Airport Interfaith Chaplaincy. There is a chaplain on call 24/7. They wander throughout the airport during their shifts and hang out inside the two chapels located in both terminals for those seeking prayer or a word of encouragement. They don't prophesy but offer worship services and support to anyone in need.
In the 1980s, several St. Louis-area clergy members advocated for an airport chapel. The interfaith chaplaincy was commissioned in 1985. Lambert chaplains are worried that the little-known service may not continue in the coming years due to a lack of funding.
"In the past, how we got support was just passively; we had services, and people would just leave offerings, but since the pandemic, many people really don't come for service anymore," said the lead chaplain, the Rev. Rodrick Burton. "Then we had to end our Mass because the archdiocese is shrinking and so our amount of resources has shrunk."
According to research, most of the country's largest airports have chapels. Smaller airports have mediation or prayer rooms. Many chapels are either Christian or Catholic, and others are interfaith. Over the decades, the chaplaincy has survived on in-kind donations.
"To put it in perspective, Atlanta [airport], they usually have a budget of about $54,000," Burton said. "I say we were around a tenth of that, and sometimes even less, a lot of us just come out of our pocket."
Throughout the year, a few thousand people sign the chaplaincy's guestbooks, but Burton said the number of people chaplains help emotionally, spiritually and financially is innumerable.
"Everyone who comes to the airport traveling is not always on vacation, and so some people are traveling because they've got bad news, they're going to a funeral," he said. "It just seemed like it's been like a season of grief."
Last year, Lambert served about 16 million passengers. There are people who come in with learning and speech disabilities who need guidance on traveling. Some travelers are stranded and need help with hotel fees and bus tickets. There are rare instances in which they have to find support for people who have been exploited. Burton said he personally has helped two people who were trafficked.
"One time we had a woman who was dumped here — no ID," he said. "Eventually, we got her to an agency that helped her, but we had to just let her stay in the chapel for a few days, provide food and make sure the police were looking out for her."
Chaplains are sometimes the first people the airport calls when they need assistance with helping the unhoused find social services. More recently, they have found themselves helping more immigrants in various ways. Burton has downloaded translation applications on his phone to help him better communicate with people from other countries. It has helped him tremendously, especially during crises.
"Since the current administration has come in, we had to deal with a young man who showed up here who wanted to self-deport," he said. "The poor guy was just kind of bounced around. We put him up, and eventually the city was able to help him."
During the recent 43-day government shutdown, chaplains said federal employees appreciated their kindness because some passengers were not as compassionate or giving as in previous shutdowns.
While walking through the airport, Laticia Mack, an ABM Aviation operations manager at Lambert, stopped and pleasantly greeted Milne, who was wearing a reflective vest with the word "Chaplain" across the back. She was looking for Burton to give him an obituary of a mutual friend who had recently died. Mack said Burton is like family to her.
"Two years ago, I was hospitalized, and Rev. Burton found out, even though he was unable to make it, he sent the representative at his place to come up to the hospital and pray for me while I was there," Mack said. "It meant a lot, because you just don't think that people think about you, or they'll say, 'Oh, I'm thinking about you, and I'm praying about you,' but he actually physically sent someone there to me."
To passengers, chaplains' services sometimes fly under the radar, but employees said chaplains play a vital role in limiting chaos within the airport. The chaplains say to continue supporting the airport and the region, they need more community partners and help tackling another financial burden. Over the next few years, the chaplaincy has to raise $400,000 to outfit its chapel inside Lambert's upcoming new terminal.
Milne said it will be by God's grace and people's goodwill if they raise the entire amount of money, because they do not have an agency that is financially helping to build out the new chapel. Chaplains said losing the service would be detrimental to travelers and the region. They are praying the Holy Spirit will take the lead on the chaplaincy's future.
"Traveling is a business aspect, and people just think the product is flying a person from here to there, but what's missed is human beings," Burton said. "Human beings have various crises … the gate agent is not the person to go to when you're having trouble — spiritual trouble, emotional trouble, personal crisis or relational crisis."
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