Nace Lanier was at home Wednesday evening (Jan. 29) watching a movie with his family when he received an emergency text from Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport, where he is senior chaplain.
After years of preparing for a rare and forbidding moment, the Southern Baptist minister headed to Reagan National to join the team responding to the midair collision of a regional passenger jet and a U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter, killing 67 people on the two aircraft, with no survivors.
“We have trained and prepared for an incident through the years,” said Lanier on Thursday in an email to RNS. “Working with the staff and communicating with the Emergency coordinators allowed us to quickly set up a location that was safe, quiet, and as comfortable as possible for the friends and family.”
‘You listen far more than say anything’
The impromptu arrangements, said the chaplain, are aimed at giving family members dealing with unexpected personal tragedy a place to “gather physically and emotionally” and have some privacy as they confronted the suddenness of personal tragedy.
“You listen far more than say anything,” Lanier said, who, as an airport chaplain, offers pastoral care in an array of mostly unforeseen circumstances. “Being present is the key ministry gift we give to those we minister.”
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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Adelle Banks and originally published by Religion News Service.
