{"id":6092,"date":"2011-03-30T23:38:42","date_gmt":"2011-03-31T05:38:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holyrover\/?p=6092"},"modified":"2011-03-30T23:38:42","modified_gmt":"2011-03-31T05:38:42","slug":"meeting-god-in-the-amsterdam-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holyrover\/2011\/03\/30\/meeting-god-in-the-amsterdam-airport\/","title":{"rendered":"Meeting God in the Amsterdam Airport"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"
Meditation Centre, Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam (photo by Lori Erickson)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Today\u2019s post is also my monthly column for the Episcopal News Service. You can read it here <\/a>or below:<\/em><\/p>\n

Experienced travelers know that holy sites can often be found in unexpected places\u2014on the side of a busy highway, for example, or tucked into the shadows of tall skyscrapers in the middle of a city. But while I\u2019ve found many such places around the world, I think the most unusual holy place I\u2019ve visited might well be the meditation room at Amsterdam\u2019s Schiphol Airport.<\/p>\n

Airports, after all, are hardly conducive to prayer and reflection. They\u2019re loud, bustling, and full of a transient population of people who intersect only briefly. The lighting is harsh and the views monotonous, and when we travel through them we\u2019re often fatigued, stressed, and in a hurry\u2014just the wrong conditions for being open to the Spirit.<\/p>\n

And yet the meditation room at one of the world\u2019s largest airports is indeed a holy place, as I discovered on a recent trip that included several hours in its bustling terminal. Bored and needing to stretch my legs, I was wandering its corridors when I saw a sign for \u201cMeditation Centre\u201d that showed the silhouette of a kneeling figure. Intrigued, I followed the arrows to the Centre, which turned out to have three parts: a Quiet Room for individual and group prayer; a Reading Room with materials relating to spirituality; and a Meeting Room where staff members can meet with visitors.<\/p>\n

It was the Quiet Room that drew me first\u2014elegantly simple, it featured colored panels with abstract images and fresh flowers on its central table. Not so different, really, from the interfaith spaces that a number of large airports have. What made this Centre unusual is that it isn\u2019t just a place\u2014it\u2019s a community of people, as I discovered when I exited the Quiet Room and met Gerard Timmermans, a Dutch Roman Catholic priest who is one of three full-time chaplains on staff there. Within a few minutes we were joined by Joop Albers, a Dutch Anglican priest (the third clergy member is a Protestant pastor, and there are also volunteers who staff the room on weekends and in the evenings).<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a sense, we have the biggest flock in the world, for more than 40 million people pass through this airport each year,\u201d said Timmermans. \u201cOur interactions with the 50,000 who visit this room are often very brief but very intense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally established in 1975 as a Roman Catholic ministry, the Meditation Centre has over the decades become a place where people of all faiths\u2014and those of no faith\u2014are welcomed.\u00a0 Timmermans and Albers told stories of some of their encounters with people who walk through the Centre\u2019s door, from victims of human trafficking (whom they connect with airport police) to family members traveling to retrieve the bodies of dead relatives.\u00a0 Muslims often use the room for daily prayers, they said, and they also have many visitors who are going on pilgrimage to places in Europe or traveling to do missionary work in Africa.<\/p>\n

But many times, the person who enters the Centre is simply someone with a heavy heart. \u201cEven if people don\u2019t have faith of any sort, they often have some sense of trust in the church, especially if they\u2019re in need,\u201d said Timmermans.<\/p>\n

\"Meditation
A traveler at prayer in the Meditation Centre (photo by Lori Erickson)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During my brief time at the Centre I felt a little of its peace seep into my tired body and soul\u2014and I was pleased to see that I was not the only person seeking solace in the Centre that morning. Before I left to catch my flight a Jewish man in prayer shawl and tefillin<\/em> entered the room and begin to pray, his body swaying back and forth in an ancient rhythm. As he left, a group of African Muslims in brilliantly colored robes took his place, spreading their prayer rugs on the floor in the eastern corner of the room before beginning their service.<\/p>\n

It was good to be reminded, there in that busy international airport, that a holy place is not dependent upon natural or architectural beauty\u2014and that God waits patiently for us everywhere, including between Gates E and F at Schiphol.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s post is also my monthly column for the Episcopal News Service. You can read it here or below: Experienced travelers know that holy sites can often be found in unexpected places\u2014on the side of a busy highway, for example, or tucked into the shadows of tall skyscrapers in the middle of a city. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2582,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[184,638],"class_list":["post-6092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-holy-sites","tag-amsterdam","tag-schiphol-airport"],"yoast_head":"\nMeeting God in the Amsterdam Airport<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Today\u2019s post is also my monthly column for the Episcopal News Service. 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