St. George's Chapel at Heathrow Airport

This one is for you Greg 😁

So maybe you heard in the fifth episode of Sea of Faith that there's an interdenominational chapel at Heathrow. And maybe you're into airport chapels. Or maybe you're not and you just noticed a sign one day while you were on your way on the underground passage from Terminal 2 to Terminal 3 (or vice versa), and you were kind of curious, but then you passed the entrance to the bus station and the chapel sign disappeared and you thought huh, must have missed the entrance. Maybe you even kept your eyes peeled for the entrance the next time you were at Heathrow, but didn't see it and went on your merry way.

And then, say, you were spending the night near the airport in a hotel that mysteriously can't be reached using the hotel shuttle buses but instead you need to take a local bus. And you notice that the chapel signs actually point up into the bus station. And the next day, on your way back through the airport, you have a bit of time and you think, ok, I'm going to find this place. So you go back to the bus station, follow the chapel sign out to the row of long-distance coaches, wind your way through the passengers waiting patiently in queues to be whisked in comfort to various destinations in the UK, and ... reach the end of the row without finding a chapel. So you wind your way back through the passengers, go back into the waiting area, look at the sign again (it definitely points outside), and go out towards the coaches again, investigating every door and service cupboard and still coming up empty. Ok, you think, one more try, and you wind your way through the queues again, and come to the end of the row of buses, and there aren't any other signs, and you're about to give up when...wait...across the service road, in the distance, is that another chapel sign? It sure looks like one. This does not seem right. But now you're more curious than ever. So you walk over the service road, down between two traffic ramps, and sure enough there is another sign, and yet another one indicating that you should turn left to go under one of the ramps (really?), and then left again, and...there you are, standing in front of a brick wall with big metal lettering reading, "Chapel of St. George."

Well then.

Behind the wall in the courtyard there's a giant cross and it's clear already that this is not one of those pansy "multi-faith prayer areas." Mass times (12:30) are posted on the next brick wall panel, flanked by posters that read "NO GREATER LOVE" and "JESUS, HOPE FOR TOMORROW." Inside the courtyard there's the big cross, surrounded by flowers, and a hodgepodge of touching memorial plaques and benches commemorating members of the Heathrow community. It's meditative, in a middle-of-a-roundabout sort of way. There's a low building and a door into the chapel, but when you enter it's not a chapel at all, but a set of restrooms, another poster that says "NOW IS THE FAVOURABLE TIME" with a cheap plastic clock (in case you were wondering when exactly now is?), and a staircase spiraling down to the basement. Downstairs (QUIET PLEASE) there's a clutter of religious literature, some of it visibly yellowed, and a guest book and some kind of a prayer tree and postcards and a door into an office area with a photocopier and desks and oh here, finally, is the entrance to the chapel itself. An employee who one hopes is not a chaplain asks why you're here and whether you're Christian (?!) and eventually lets you off the conversational hook with "ok well, I'll let you go pray in the chapel and I'll pray for you." (??)

It's not so much a chapel as a time capsule. This subterranean worship space, according to its Wikipedia page, was built in 1968 as a "vaulted crypt" in what was then the middle of the airport, to guarantee a quiet space for worship. But...it's a bunker. Complete with clearly marked and heavily bolted emergency exit port. It has three apses, one for each of the founding/funding denominations (Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Free Churches), though in 1972 someone apparently realized that this seemed pretty ridiculous and they re-dedicated one altar for use by all three (though you get the feeling that the Catholics are the only ones who venture down here any more). The altar cover is adorned with three silver airplanes, each of which contain a gold cross, all surely lovingly embroidered by the wife of a British Airways pilot. The chairs - worn, wooden with leather seats and shelves at the back for prayer books - were probably designed specifically for this space. In the back to the left there's a tabernacle ("the Blessed Sacrament is reserved in this Chapel," noted a sign on your way in), and to the right there's a statue of Mary and a votive rack liberally coated in tinfoil. There are memorials here, too - for individuals and for aviation disasters around the world.

It's all kind of...sad. Because you can just imagine the Muslims (not to mention the yoga teachers) who would dearly like to use this space, the Catholics who wouldn't know what to do with their tabernacle if that happened, the Anglicans who would feel awkward about all those memorial plaques. The informational booklet for the Heathrow Chaplaincy is tactfully printed in two parts - reading from one side, it's about "faith representatives from a diverse range of faiths... seeking to encourage mutual understanding and respect for all people" but when you reach the middle the text is upside down, so you have to physically flip the thing over to read from the other side about the Chapel of St. George, which is "a haven of peace and quiet for prayer...reached via stairs and at this time there is no access for persons with reduced mobility."

You light a little candle for yourself and your onward journey and the future of the chapel. May it be granted an elevator, and a triumphant entry into the 21st century.

View from the bus terminal. If you squint, you can just about make out the cross under the giant football ads. A metaphor for our time, perhaps.

Um, really?

Really!

Garden of Remembrance

Ok this is gratuitous but this poster cracked me up for some reason. Likewise the British penchant for "female" and "male" toilets. Makes the whole gendered bathroom thing seem even more silly.

Going down (unless you're mobility impaired, in which case it's back to the bus terminal with you).

And here we are. The lights do not help the photo here and they aren't as glaringly bright as they seem in this picture but...well here we are.

Close-up of the altar cloth motif. In all my years as the child of a naval aviator I don't think I ever contemplated the similarity between airplanes and crosses.

Rest in peace, Janette.