Now the deacons hold Communion services at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday and Friday, while Masses are offered at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
Blair Walker, head of the Atlanta Interfaith Airport Chaplaincy, worked closely with Peek to make the idea of a permanent eucharistic presence at the airport a reality.
Because it is an interfaith chapel, Walker explained, the airport chaplaincy staff had to get creative in designing the space.
“The space is designed for shared sacred use,” Walker told CNA, “so we don’t want any one thing in there that overpowers the faith groups that are using it.”
Multiple design ideas were proposed but didn’t work out. Finally, one day while Peek was reflecting in the airport chapel, he realized an area being used for storage that was covered by frosted glass could be used to house the Eucharist.
“We realized, ‘Oh, we can remove the frosting off it,’” Walker said.
Now just behind the cleared glass is a tabernacle and a lamp to signal Christ’s presence.
The final design of the chapel serves the dual purpose of keeping the interfaith sense of the space while also protecting the Eucharist from any who would potentially abuse it.
For Peek, whose father, Joseph Peek, was an airline pilot, the project became a labor of love.
“I did it really for the airline personnel,” Peek said. “My dad was a commercial airline pilot and flew out of Atlanta for many, many years. He had a great devotion to Our Lord in the Eucharist.”
In the chapel’s sacristy area, Peek placed a few pictures of his father, one of him with his mother in front of a statue of Our Lady of Fatima, another of him at the helm of a Boeing 727, and another shows his father giving Peek Communion.
(Story continues below)
“I put all that there kind of as a statement to summarize how much he incorporated faith and family into his life and in his work, and to inspire other aircrew to do the same,” Peek said.
Credit: Source link
