No place like home

The chapel at Tampa International Airport is a refuge where faith finds expression

By SHARON TUBBS

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 15, 2001

TAMPA -- Shades of turquoise, forest green and apricot sprinkle the dense carpet, the kind found in offices and libraries. Seven chairs that match the carpet face a stained-glass wall scene painted in pastels. A skyline, clouds? Perhaps. But abstract geometric shapes confuse things.

The lighting is dim and the air without aroma, as if the hefty wooden door were a sealant, secluding this small room at Tampa International Airport from the restaurants and snack shops on the third floor.

No one chats here. It could pass for a doctor's waiting room, if not for the sign outside -- "Chapel." About 10 feet away, a uniformed gray-haired man sits behind a desk with travel brochures and two Bibles -- one burgundy, one black -- that can be loaned to those seeking Scripture.

The chapel is nondenominational, religiously generic inside. Just the chairs, the ambiguous stained glass, the Kleenex and a table with guest book and pen.

People stop in on their way to France, Norway, New York. They sit, some with their eyes closed and heads bowed. Others stare straight ahead. Silence. As much as five minutes pass or as little as 30 seconds.

Others jot prayers and beliefs in the guest book. Religious arguments sometimes make their way into the chapel's permanent record.

"The stakes are very high," reads one passage written sometime in August. "You have to decide on the truth. Just remember, there can only be one truth. Jesus Christ."

Just beside it: "I am a Muslim and I have the right religion. Christianity and Judaism were religions sent by god, but people changed the religions and now god sent Muhammad -- a mercy to mankind with the quran to lead us. Islam is the religion to everyone, not only arabs and easterners."

"Jesus IS the ONLY way!" someone else writes.

Then came the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, thought to be committed by an extremist Muslim group headed by Saudi exile Osama bin Laden.

On Sept. 19: "Let those of all faiths learn to be accepting of each other."

On Oct. 7: "Thank you for all the religions, all the prophets and saints."

Written below the Oct. 7 entry, as if to make sure God doesn't take the previous writer's "all religions" idea too far: "Dear Lord Jesus, please protect us from some spirits."

-- Sharon Tubbs, Times staff writer

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