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The Evolution of American Airport Chapels: Local Negotiations in Religiously Pluralistic Contexts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2018

Wendy Cadge
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Abstract

Religion and spirituality are present in many organizations in the contemporary United States. While religious studies scholars have traditionally focused on local congregations, some are branching out to explore religion in a broader range of public institutions. Between 1950, when many scholars conceptualized American religion in terms of Will Herberg's classic Protestant-Catholic-Jew and the present, chapels in public institutions including the military, healthcare centers, universities, prisons and airports have expanded and diversified. I focus on airports tracing the evolution of airport chapels from Catholic centered to more multi-faith to more religiously inclusive as unlikely, or perhaps just hidden, analytic mirrors for demographic and cultural changes in American religion. Theoretically, these chapels are case studies that show how the function and appropriate place for religion in public institutions has been improvised and negotiated locally. The clergy, airport personnel and airport chaplains who make decisions about these spaces lack consistent education about the topic and receive inconsistent guidance from laws and policies across city, state, and federal contexts. The chapel spaces that result are, therefore, much more varied than one might expect and shaped as much by fears about what could cause conflict as by responses to actual conflicts.

Keywords

airportchapelpublic institutionmulti-faithchurch-state
Type
Research Article
Information
Religion and American Culture , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , Winter 2018 , pp. 135 - 165
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture 1967

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References

Notes

1. More information at http://www.atlanta-airport.com/fifth/atl/atl_factsheet.aspx.

2. For exceptions, see Morgan, David and Promey, Sally M., The Visual Culture of American Religions (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001)Google Scholar; McDannell, Colleen, Material Christianity: Religion and Popular Culture in America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995).Google Scholar

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5. Wendy Cadge, Margaret Clendenen, and Laura Olson, “Idiosyncratic Prophets: Personal Style in the Prayers of Congressional Chaplains, 1990-2010,” Journal of Church and State (2015).

6. Department of the Air Force Chaplain Service. Air Mobility Command Chapel Facilities Design Guide (1999); U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Army Chapel Standard Definitive Design for the Initial Entry Training Setting (2010); Naval Facilities Engineering Command. Chapels & Religious Educational Facilities: Design Requirements and Functional Analyses (1985).

7. Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Chapels & Religious Educational Facilities, 6.C.1-3. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Army Chapel Standard Definitive Design for the Initial Entry Training Setting. Department of the Air Force Chaplain Service, Air Mobility Command Chapel Facilities Design Guide.

8. Sophie Gilliat-Ray, “From ‘Chapel’ to ‘Prayer Room’: The Production, Use, and Politics of Sacred Space in Public Institutions,” Culture and Religion 6 (2005).

9. Brand, Ralf, “Case Study 4. Multi-Faith Spaces as Symptoms and Agents of Change,” in Religion and Change in Modern Britain, ed. Woodhead, Linda and Catto, Rebecca (New York: Routledge, 2012).Google Scholar

10. This article is based on detailed historical research and interviews with chaplains at the twenty largest U.S. airports today. While I focus primarily on these twenty, I also mention others in the history when that information was available in the public domain. I aimed to visit all the chapels in the twenty largest airports. Colleagues visited a few for me and sent photographs. While this paper is social scientific, there is also theological writing about airport chaplaincy including Michael Banfield, “Steps toward Starting an Airport Chaplaincy” (International Association of Civil Aviation Chaplains, 2009); “An Approach to Airport Chaplaincy” (IACAC Conference, 2008); Vincer, Michael, “Airports,” in Chaplaincy: The Church's Sector Ministries, ed. Legood, Giles (New York: Cassell, 1999)Google Scholar; Airport Chaplaincy: A Catholic Handbook, (National Conference of Catholic Airport Chaplains, 2011). I focus on the United States. Analysis of airport chapels outside of the United States includes Marion Bowman, http://www.religiousstudiesproject.com/podcast/podcast-marion-bowman-on-vernacular-religion/ (2012); C.T. [Peter] Holloway, “My Parish Was an Airport” (1990); Robert B. Tillman, “Vancouver International Airport Ministry.”

11. For example, http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/news/.premium-1.618630.

12. Auge, Marc, Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity (New York: Verso, 1995).Google Scholar

13. Hicks, Douglas A., With God on All Sides: Leadership in a Devout and Diverse America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14. There is periodic media attention to these spaces, for example, “Faith and the Frequent Flyer,” Macleans April 1, 2002; Andrea Seabrook, Talk of the Nation “Airport Chapels: ‘Flying on a Wing and a Prayer'” (http://www.npr.org/2011/07/04/137607072/airport-chapels-flying-on-awing-and-a-prayer, July 4, 2011); Diana Novak Jones, “Sunday Sitdown: Rev. Mike Zaniolo, O'Hare Airport Chaplain,” Chicago Sun-Times, May 3, 2015; Mike Tierney, “The Airport Chaplain, Now Offering Earthly Aid,” New York Times, March 2, 2014.

15. “U.S. Airport Accommodates Muslim Prayers,” On Islam & Neivspapers, June 11, 2013; Jillian Lloyd, “Religious Practices v. Work Demands,” Christian Science Monitor, December 31, 1998; Michael Clancy, “Airport Answers Prayers,” Arizona Republic, May 20, 2004; Matier and Ross, “Airport's Garage Now a Muslim House of Worship,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 9, 2013; Martha C. White, “Yoga Rooms Offer a Quiet Break in Hectic Airports,” New York Times, May 4, 2015.

16. Weber, Max, The Sociology of Religion (Boston: Beacon Press, 1991).Google Scholar

17. DiMaggio, Paul and Powell, Walter, “The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields,” in The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis, ed. DiMaggio, Paul and Powell, Walter (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991).Google Scholar

18. Giddens, Anthony, Central Problems in Social Theory: Action, Structure, and Contradiction in Social Analysis (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; DiMaggio, Paul, “State Expansion and Organizational Fields,” in State Expansion and Organizational Fields, ed. Hall, R. H. and Quinn, R. E. (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1983)Google Scholar; Sewell, William, “A Theory of Structure: Duality, Agency, and Transformation,” American Journal of Sociology 98, (1992).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

19. Sociologists frequently debate what constitutes a field based on how they understand the theoretical criteria in actual settings. I view airport chapels as a field because they are involved in common endeavors distinct from other spaces or organizations. While some chapels are actual organizations connected to chaplaincy at their airport, others are just spaces – a variation I allow within the field because of their common orientation.

20. Weiner, Issac, Religion Out Loud: Religious Sound, Public Space, and American Pluralism (New York: New York University Press, 2014).Google Scholar

21. “Public Chapel of Our Lady of the Airways. Logan International Airport,” Litgurgical Arts 20 (1952); Chris Reidy, “From Fast Mass to the Masses,” Boston Globe, December 27, 1992. Archbishop Cushing also built workmen's chapels in the port of Boston and at the train station in the early 1950s. Our Lady of Good Voyages was built on the Boston Fish Pier dedicated on December 8, 1952. “Fish Pier Chapel Will Open Dec. 8,” Daily Boston Globe, November 17, 1952.

22. Chad Alan Bayowski, “Exploring Interfaith Space: The Chapel(s) at JFK International Airport” (Harvard University, 2005).

23. Interview, Richard Uftring, October 2013. Before the chapel was built, Rev. Joseph D. Hawes, pastor of Our Lady of the Assumption Church, was identified as an airport chaplain in a news article about a young girl stranded at Logan Airport in 1949. “Girl, 7, Unable to Speak English, Stranded for a While at Airport,” Boston Globe, November 26, 1949. Documents from the archives of the Catholic archdiocese suggest space for an airport chapel was also offered to Protestants and Jews who did not come forward to build one.

24. Rev. Bernard McLaughlin served at Logan from 1972 to 1994 at which point the current chaplain, Father Richard Uftring was assigned. Father McLaughlin was also pastor of Holy Redeemer Parish in East Boston and used revenue from the airport chapel to support what in the early 1990s was a largely immigrant poor parish. Reidy, “From Fast Mass to the Masses.” Priests assigned to the airport also often cover the seaport in Boston.

25. See http://www.jfkchapel.org/index.php/chapel/chapelhistory/71-history-of-our-lady-of-the-skies-chapel.

26. Bayowski, “Exploring Interfaith Space.”

27. Ibid.

28. Herberg, Will, Protestant-Catholic-Jew: An Essay in American Religious Sociology (Garden City: Doubleday, 1955).Google Scholar

29. Christopher Gray, “Streetscapes: The Chapels at Kennedy Airport,” New York Times, June 21, 1987; Bayowski, “Exploring Interfaith Space.”

30. Ari L. Goldman, “Faiths at Odds over Razing Airport Chapels,” New York Times, August 25, 1985; “Follow-up on the News: Airport Chapels to Be Retained,” New York Times August 10, 1986.

31. Interview, Michael Zaniolo, July 2013.

32. Interview, David Baratelli, September 2013.

33. Their webpage currently describes them as a “global professional association that brings together airport chaplains of all faiths and religions from all over the world.” http://www.iacac.info/index.php/iacac/about-iacac/72-history-of-iacacafter.

34. See http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/migrants/index.htm.

35. See http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/migrants/s_index_civilaviation/rc_pc_migrants_sectioncivilaviation.htm.

36. See http://www.vatican.va/rotnan_.curia/pontifical_councils/migrants/documents/rc_pc_migrants_doc_20000601_avci_presentazione_en.html; Airport Chaplaincy: A Catholic Handbook, 2011.

37. Orlando was an exception where a small Catholic chapel was opened in 1983 and named after a crane operator, Michael Galvin, who was killed working on an airport expansion project. The current chaplain, Robert Susann, explained that Galvin was honored in this way because “he saved a lot of lives because of the way he operated the crane when it fell” (interview, August 2013). The chapel was on the unsecure side of the airport when it was built but is now on the secure side as security rules have changed. The first chaplain started work at the airport in 2005.

38. Interview, Chester Cook, August 2013.

39. See http://www.archatl.com/about/airportchaplain/history.html.

40. See http://www.dfwairportchapel.org/history.html.

41. Aweeka, December 31, 1992. He worked at the airport as well as with police, firefighters, first responders, and others until his death in 2013. A description of his ministry is here: http://chaplaincy.org/.

42. Interview, Robert White, August 2013.

43. Bayowski. “Exploring Interfaith Space”; Interview, Chris Piasta, September 2013.

44. Interview, Al Young, July 2013.

45. Prior to this time there was no designated spiritual or religious space in the airport aside from the Christian Science Reading Room, which was opened privately in 1955 (http://csreadingroom-sfo.org/history/).

46. Interview, Mikki Bourne, August 2013.

47. Ibid. See also Matthai Kuruvila, “SFO's Reflection Room Used Mostly for Snoozing,” SF Gate, January 4, 2009.

48. There was at least one court case prior to 1990s, Brashich v. Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (1979), in which the United States District Court of the Southern District of New York heard a challenge against the three chapels at JFK airport under both the First and Fourth Amendments. Injunctive relief was denied (http://www.leagle.com/decision/19791181484FSupp697_11072). General issues related to airport solicitation were also present in cases involving the Hare Krishnas in New York in 1992 and Los Angeles in 2010. In 1992 the Supreme Court heard International Society for Krishna Consciousness v. Lee in which the Court ruled that banning solicitation by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness is reasonable because solicitors may slow the path of customers, cause duress, or commit fraud. The ban was initially instituted by New York City's Airport Authority. The Hare Krishnas argued that it was against their First Amendment rights to deny their not-for-profit group to engage in fundraising (http://www.lexisnexis.com/lnacui2api/api/versionl/getDocCui?lni=3VJ2-JX80-002K-7001&csi=6443&hl=t&hv=t&hnsd=f&hns=t&hgn=t&oc=00240&perma=true). In the International Society for Krishna Consciousness of California v. City of Los Angeles (2010), the Hare Krishnas challenged the ban in Los Angeles and lost again. This decision made it to the California Supreme Court (http://www.lexisnexis.com/lnacui2api/api/versionl/getDocCui?lni=4SPT-JJ10-TXFX-D39M&csi=6320&hl=t&hv=t&hnsd=f&hns=t&hgn=t&oc=00240&perma=true).

49. See http://www.leagle.com/decision/199483824F3d814_1722.xml/HAWLEY%20v.%20CITY%20OF%20CLEVELAND.

50. Airport Commision City and County of San Francisco, “Rules and Regulations, San Francisco International Airport” (November 2009).

51. Cathy Lynn Grossman, “On the Wing? There's Room for a Prayer,” USA Today January 26, 1999; Glen Martin, “A Place to Pray,” and Virginia Culver, “Interfaith Chapel at Dia Opens with High Spirits at Dedication,” Denver Post, January 11, 1996. The plaque installed on January 10, 1996, for the dedication reads, “My House Shall Be a House of Prayers for All Peoples.” Isaiah 56:7. The DIA Interfaith Chapel Committee included Rabbi Steven E. Kaye, President; Mohammed A. Jodeh, Secretary; Rev. Lucia Guzman; Deacon Mark F. Salvato, Vice President; Sister Peggy Maloney, RSA; Henry DeNicola, AIA, Architect. On a second plaque the “Committee gratefully acknowledges and appreciates the cooperation of Colorado Council of Churches, Colorado Muslim Society, Archdiocese of Denver, Rocky Mountain Rabbinical Council, Mayor Wellington E. Webb, James C. DeLong Director of Aviation, The Department of Aviation, The Airlines at DIA for assisting us in building this House of Prayer.”

52. Personal communication, public relations staff member, September 2013.

53. Interview, George Szalony, July 2013.

54. Size is based on the number of passengers as reported by the Federal Aviation Administration's annual ranking of enplanements at primary airports, available through their website (FAA.gov). The ranking of passenger boarding comes from data collected through the FAA's database Air Carrier Activity Information System (ACAIS) in 2011, the most recent data available when this research began. We compared the 2010 and 2011 ranks, and, with some slight variation in order, all twenty airports consecutively ranked highest in annual enplanements. By measuring the busiest airports through enplanements, rather than number of flights or weight of cargo transported, we aimed to know how many travelers pass through our domestic airports each year and could potentially use chapel spaces. Airports included were Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, Chicago O'Hare International, Los Angeles International, Dallas/Fort Worth International, Denver International, John F. Kennedy International, San Francisco International, McCarran International (Las Vegas), Phoenix Harbor International, George Bush Intercontinental (Houston), Charlotte Douglas International, Miami International, Orlando International, Newark Liberty International, Seattle-Tacoma International, Minneapolis-St. Paul International, Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County, Philadelphia International, Boston Logan International Airport, LaGuardia Airport (New York). Our findings differ somewhat from those reported by the Pew Forum: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/07/06/most-of-thebusiest-u-s-airports-have-dedicated-chapels/?utm_source==Pew+Research+Center&utm_campaign=ecb8897c3b-Religion_WeeklyJuly_9_2015&utm__medium=email&utm_term=0_3e953b9b70-ecb8897c3b-399963465.

55. David O'Reilly, “Airport Speeds up Plans for Chapel,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 21, 2001. The lack of a chapel at the Los Angeles International Airport is probably related to legal disputes around Jews for Jesus in the 1980s that focused on the airport there. Hardaway, Robert M. et al., Airport Regulation, Law, and Public Policy (New York: Quorum Books, 1991)Google Scholar; Toobin, Jeffrey, The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court (New York: Doubleday, 2007).Google Scholar

56. This kneeling figure was copyrighted in Atlanta, the documents are available through the airport's chaplaincy office. Interview, Chester Cook, August 2013.

57. Interview, Michael Zaniolo, July 2013.

58. Janet Filmore and Jonathan D. Rubin, “Single-Faith Chapels a Dying Breed at U.S. Airports,” Christian Index, June 19, 2008; Dionne Walker, “Airport Chapels Adapt to Accommodate More Religions,” USA Today, August 3, 2009.

59. See also “Airport Chapels: Shifting from Denominational to Interfaith.”

60. Interview, Chester Cook, August 2013.

61. Interview, George Szalony, July 2013

62. DiMaggio and Powell, “The Iron Cage Revisited.”

63. Gilliat-Ray, “From ‘Chapel’ to ‘Prayer Room.’”

64. “Legal Mission Statement,” n.d., copy in possession of author.

65. Sullivan, Winnifred Fallers, A Ministry of Presence: Chaplaincy, Spiritual Care and the Law (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Cadge, Paging God.

66. For more on legal regulation see Hardaway et al, Airport Regulation, Law, and Public Policy.

67. Kuruvila, “SFO's Reflection Room Used Mostly fro Snoozing.”

68. The website of the chaplaincy at the Dallas airport welcomes inquiries about weddings (http://www.dfwairportchapel.org/services.html).

69. Interview, Chester Cook, August 2013.

70. Virginia Culver, “Dia Ends Mass Reminders: Church-State Issues Cloud Announcements,” Denver Post, August 17, 2000.

71. Interview, George Szalony, July 2013. At another airport there has been conflict about whether chaplains can be called chaplains with airport officials arguing on church-state grounds that they cannot use that title.

72. See also Wendy Cadge, “God on the Fly? The Professional Mandates of Airport Chaplains,” Sociology of Religion (forthcoming).

73. Cadge, Paging God.

74. James Beckford, “SSSR Presidential Address Public Religions and the Postsecular: Critical Reflections,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 51 (2012); Courtney Bender and Omar M. McRoberts, “Mapping a Field: Why and How to Study Spirituality” (Social Science Research Council, 2012); Wendy Cadge and Mary Ellen Konieczny, “Hidden in Plain Sight': The Significance of Religion and Spirituality in Secular Organizations,” Sociology of Religion 75, (2014); Mar Griera and Anna Clot-Garrell, “Banal Is Not Trivial: Visibility, Recognition, and Inequalities between Religious Groups in Prison,” Journal of Contemporary Religion 30, (2015).