Ministering to airport flock more difficult in tough times PITTSBURGH (AP) ? There was a time when an airport chaplain's main job was to soothe fears of flying, but like everything else in the airline industry, even anxiety is more complicated these days. Airport chaplains find themselves ministering to an increasingly nervy flock of airline workers worried about bankruptcies and layoffs and travelers coping with terrorism, increased security and canceled flights. Add to that concerns that SARS has been spread via long-distance air travel and you have what the Rev. John Jamnicky, who for 20 years was chaplain at Chicago O'Hare International Airport, calls a business in chaos. "You've got employees who are concerned about their jobs and their livelihood. Everyone who travels is concerned," said Jamnicky, who now coordinates all travel chapels for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "They're being stressed out on every level." On Tuesday, the National Conference of Catholic Airport Chaplains begins a five-day annual meeting outside Pittsburgh, giving about two dozen clergy a chance to compare notes about a transportation community they say is in dire need of ministering and faith. Above all, the message seems to be that, in such a time of uncertainty, religious leaders must be there to listen. With chapels in airports across the nation, clergy (not all of them Roman Catholic, who are the only ones represented at this week's meeting) no longer simply try to assuage fears of travelers concerned about flying. Now, the worries often belong to airline employees, who fret they may lose jobs they always believed were secure. For workers and pilots always on the go, the airport chapel stands in for the hometown place of worship; some shuffle their schedules to land in time for a service. The Rev. Jack Fitzgerald, who has been chaplain at Pittsburgh's airport since 1994, said his ministry functions as a parish church for many US Airways workers ? most of whom wonder what their futures hold with the airline coming out of bankruptcy. People approach him looking for spiritual answers. "The business finds you," Fitzgerald said. And the overall feeling of the airport as a crossroads has changed, he said. Once, it seemed a glamorous place, full of mystique and possibility. It's a much more stressful environment now, ever since Sept. 11, 2001. "Many of them are concerned about their jobs. There is an anxiety," said the Rev. Jim Devine, chaplain at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City for 15 years. "It's been stressful for the chaplains as well." It's not that the chaplains can offer concrete answers to specific questions about job security or assure travelers they are safe from terrorism. What they can do is "hope and pray," Devine said. And be seen. That will be the message of the Rev. Thomas Acklin, who prepares young men for the priesthood at St. Vincent Seminary in Latrobe, when he speaks to the conference on Wednesday. His speech is titled, "The Uncertainty of Our Times." Saying the people working in and rushing through airports are in a time of "radical vulnerability," Acklin said it is important that clergy realize they can provide stability and faith to those who need ministering. To do so, they need to roam freely looking for people to help. "We've tended to be low-key about chapels and places of prayer and expressions of faith," he said. "This is something that needs to be an abiding presence." Jamnicky said there are probably fewer people using airport chapels than, say, five years ago. He says he is certain the percentage of people using chapels has gone up as the stress level has increased. And the number of people with stronger anxieties is greater, too. What about the people he used to counsel two decades ago, explaining simply that flying was safer than any other mode of transportation? "I don't think they are flying anymore," Jamnicky said. "Now the kinds of fears are based in some sort of reality." *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.pscutt.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************