"Spirit and the skies"

Friday, September 5, 2003

Spirit and the skies - WITH DOG BY SIDE, CHAPLAIN OFFERS COMFORT, ASSISTANCE
TO TRAVELERS AT S.J. AIRPORT
By Kim Vo
The San Jose (CA) Mercury News


Walk around a San Jose airport terminal, through the cool recirculated air,
past the ticket counter lines and food court smelling of french fries, and
you find all the joys and worries of the world.

There is a cuddly couple heading on their honeymoon. A niece visiting her
coast-side aunt. There, too, is a woman, terrified of flying yet needing to
zoom across a continent to see a dying relative. There is a man,
self-important and impatient, waiting to step through the metal detectors.

Kathryn Liebschutz has seen them all. Pacing Mineta San Jose International
Airport in flat comfortable shoes, usually with her Dalmatian, Dolly, by her
side, she approaches a traveler and says:

``I'm Mrs. Liebschutz. I'm one of the chaplains here at the airport. Is
there anything I can do to help?''

Liebschutz is a member of the airport's Interfaith Chaplaincy. Volunteer
chaplains and lay church leaders walk the airport terminals offering help,
humor and solace to travelers and employees alike.

The number of such chaplaincy programs has been growing. There are now at
least 141 worldwide, from Australia to Zambia, according to the
International Association of Civil Aviation Chaplains. However, San Jose is
the only major Bay Area airport with a chaplaincy program.

San Francisco International Airport has a meditation room where people of
all faiths can pray; airport officials are also working with the Archdiocese
of San Francisco to offer Saturday Mass. Oakland airport dispatches
chaplains through the Red Cross when there is an emergency. They haven't
been used in at least a decade, a spokeswoman there said.

Liebschutz doesn't wait for the big emergencies. She walks the airport at
least twice a week, and when a blackout hit the East Coast last month, she
arrived nearly two hours earlier than planned. Mornings are routinely
stressful, and she worried it would be even more so for business travelers
trying to get back east.

It wasn't too bad. Early in the morning, some travelers waited for their
flights to clear, but overall it was calm. Cries of `awww' greeted
Liebschutz and Dolly as they walked the terminal, a sea of outstretched
hands in their wake. Children reached out to pet Dolly, airport workers to
roughhouse with her or offer treats.

``She's one of the best stress relievers,'' Liebschutz said. ``Kids love
her.''

Amy Munson of Colorado watched her 4-year-old daughter, Lauren, play with
Dolly while waiting for the flight home. ``It's neat,'' she said. ``It's
more personal and a neat way to travel.''

Most encounters are like that, a sunny experience that makes the wait time
and workday pass faster.

``She does so much good,'' said DeeAnn Perrins, an airline sales agent.
``You cannot not have a smile on your face when you see Dolly and Kathy.''

But Liebschutz is there for the more vexing problems, too. Recently, a man
fumed while waiting in the security line as his wife nervously tried to
assuage him. They had bought first-class tickets, he said, wasn't there a
first-class line? Liebschutz talked to him, explained whom he could write
to, and by the time he was done venting, it was his turn to step through the
metal detectors.

Liebschutz says she doesn't mind if people yell at her, though she
occasionally wants to wash out passengers' foul mouths. ``If they take it
out on me, they won't take it out on a stewardess,'' she said, then
corrected herself. ``Airline attendant. Sorry, I'm from the old school.''

Sometimes people shirk when they hear she's a chaplain. ``I think they're
sure I'm going to raise the Bible and start screaming and shouting,'' said
Liebschutz, a lay speaker with the United Methodist Church in Morgan Hill.
It doesn't happen. Proselytizing is against the rules. ``Telemarketer for
the Lord? No, I don't think so.''

Like everything, the job has changed since Sept. 11, 2001.

Before, the most dramatic moments for the chaplains included helping
grieving travelers who were going to attend a funeral or visit an ailing
parent. Once a pastor was asked to fetch oxygen tanks for a passenger en
route to New York.

But Sept. 11 brought a new level of fear and urgency. That morning, all
chaplains were summoned to the San Jose airport to help passengers stranded
by grounded planes or console those just arriving who might not have been
aware of the attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.

In the following days, the chaplains were a daily presence, trying to ease
people fearful of again boarding a plane, counseling security workers
nervous about losing their jobs, helping travelers navigate new rules.

Now, every time the rules change or the risk level changes from yellow to
orange, tensions rise. Clergy say that's an indication that their work is
especially needed now.

``Sometimes in the midst of all these bureaucracies, having someone present
whose sole concern is taking care of people is much needed,'' said Rabbi
Leslie Alexander, who sits on the Interfaith Chaplaincy board.

Caring for people is what the Rev. Dwight Kintner envisioned when he started
San Jose's chaplaincy program in 1995. At first, he said, airport
commissioners were leery: They imagined Hare Krishnas chanting at the
airport.

But Kintner eventually convinced them that the airport -- a place filled
with ``tension, tedium and delays'' -- would benefit.

These days, chaplains are at the airport two to three times a week, usually
working three-hour shifts. There aren't enough volunteers to fill all the
days, though Kintner would eventually like them to be a daily presence and
perhaps have a prayer room when the airport is renovated.

The chaplains receive training not just in counseling, but also in how to
administer first aid, read the triangular warning signs and enter a
dangerous building -- and when to stay away from dangerous situations. The
interfaith board -- with its representatives from Christian, Jewish, Muslim
and Bahai faiths -- also strives to cater to the diversity of the almost
5,000 employees and 11 million annual passengers.

Under an airport counter lies a spiritual tool bag. There are votive candles
and a menorah. Rosaries and crosses. Prayers in Spanish and laminated cards
imprinted with the ``Policeman's Prayer to Saint Michael.'' Wafers and grape
juice boxes. Anointing oil for last rites -- still, thankfully, unused.

The chaplains take seriously their charge to offer comfort, not theology, a
position that convinced some ``eager evangelicals'' that the interfaith
group wasn't a good fit, Kintner said.

Alexander says the job is difficult, but at its core, basic.

``Part of training is how to listen to what people need and listen to what
they really need,'' said Alexander, herself afraid of flying. ``Maybe they
don't need anything but a smile and a joke. Sometimes, they need more.''


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