Frankfurt/Main (dpa/lhe) – The ecumenical pastoral care at Frankfurt Airport is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. It is one of several religious offerings at Germany’s largest airport. In addition to the ecumenical chapel and the prayer rooms, there are prayer rooms for Jews and Muslims and a quiet room for people without a religious denomination.
The opening of the room and thus the expansion of the offer was also a reaction to the increasing need of their passengers for places of retreat, said a spokeswoman for the airport operator Fraport. “Since then, people of every religion and faith have escaped the hustle and bustle of everyday life for a moment in the rooms of silence.”
Overall, a lot of value is placed on the diversity of religions, emphasized Father Edward Fröhling from the Catholic airport pastoral care. “Sometimes we have already organized Muslim-Christian memorial services for the deceased together with the Muslim community,” added Pastor Bettina Klünemann from the Protestant pastoral care.
Orhan Öcal, Fraport’s employee for intercultural affairs and responsible for the Muslim prayer rooms, spoke of interreligious cooperation at the airport “hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder”. According to Öcal, up to 70 people come to Friday prayers in the Muslim prayer room – but the number has fallen as a result of the corona restrictions.
