Our Lady of the Skies
September 14, 2023 by Amy Welborn
I ran across this a couple of days ago…not sure where. I saved it for a “random” post, but the more I looked into, the more it seemed to deserve its own.
We all know about airport chapels and prayer rooms and meditation rooms.
I had no idea that about the “Tri-Faith” chapel plaza at Idlewild/JFK.
It is hard to imagine a time when air travel was more leisurely and non-securitized than it is now. But in the not-too-distant past, John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens, New York was known as Idlewild International Airport, and it had a “Tri-Faith Plaza” where airline visitors could visit and pray at one of three free standing chapels aligned along the edge of a large reflecting pool near the airport’s main terminals.
Idlewild’s first chapel, Our Lady of the Skies, was built in 1954 by the Diocese of Brooklyn. When airport expansion and a new terminal required its…
