R.C. Airport Chaplaincy Schiphol Airport
The Roman Catholic Church has been active at Schiphol Airport since 1975, diligently shaping the Airport Ministry. Starting on its own and from scratch, the first years were hard work. This was eased when a Protestant colleague joined, as it provided peer consultation between the pastors appointed by the churches
The bishop of Haarlem initiated the Foundation Roman Catholic Airport Chaplaincy in 1987. It’s objective was to take care of the material interests of the R.C. Airport Chaplaincy. At that time, the Protestant churches established a team, exclusively for advise and support.
The contacts between the R.C. foundation and the Protestant support team started in 1992, intensified and grew into a strong cooperation. In 2005 they were joined by the Anglican Church and the Old Catholic church in the Netherlands.
Today there are three participating foundations, representing the different churches. Together they founded an umbrella organisation in 2014, called the Stichting Ondersteuning Luchthavenpastoraat Schiphol (also called SOLS), to support the work of the pastors of the Airport Chaplaincy Schiphol.
More than one hundred thousand people travel via Schiphol Airport on a daily basis. They come from all points of the globe and travel for very different reasons. Several have concerns and worries and could use some support, an encouraging word or just a sympathetic ear. The Airport Chaplaincy wants to give that support and offers pastoral and spiritual care in a number of ways. The Airport Chaplaincy consists of 3 pastors and 25 volunteers of different denominations.