The team

The foundation board, the volunteers in the Meditation Centre and the pastors together form the Airport Chaplaincy at Schiphol. Three pastors have been appointed at the airport, each with a different background. The pastors provide emotional and spiritual care and support to passengers and airport employees. They assist those who encounter difficulties during their journey, whatever difficulties that may be.

Marieke Meiring-Snijder

Airport chaplain

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Pastor Marieke Meiring-Snijder is an active minister and since November 1, 2015, she is employed by the Protestant Schiphol Airport Chaplaincy Foundation.

Marieke has served several parishes in the Netherlands as well as abroad. Between 2004 and 2007, she was an associate pastor in the English-speaking Presbyterian Church of Malaysia. Besides her responsibilities as a minister in Kuala Lumpur, Marieke lectured at two theological seminaries.

Na haar terugkeer was Marieke van 2009 tot 2015 verbonden aan de Protestantse gemeente te IJsselstein. Gedurende die periode was zij tevens geestelijk verzorger van het Johannes Hospitium in Wilnis. In 2017 voltooide zij de postacademische opleiding tot geestelijk begeleider.

In 2017 she completed the postgraduate education in spiritual direction and in 2022 she finished the Emoena curriculum at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam. Marieke is officially associated with the Ecumenical Church Community the Ark in Hoofddorp.

Mark Hafkenscheid

Airport chaplain

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Mark Hafkenscheid is a priest in the Church of England. He has been appointed by the Old Catholic and Anglican Airport Ministry Foundation (OCAAM) as airport chaplain at Schiphol, under the episcopal oversight of Bishop Robert Innes (Anglican Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe) and Monsignor Dick Schoon (Old Catholic Bishop of Haarlem). 

As a pastor, he would like to be present at Schiphol in a serving capacity, as he finds hospitality, warmth, pastoral care and personal attention important.

In addition to his work at Schiphol, Mark is a curate at St Mary's Anglican & Episcopal Church in Rotterdam. Prior to that, Mark was a member of Christ Church Amsterdam, the church from which the Anglican Airport Ministry at Schiphol was founded. 

He was a board member of City Monastery La Verna (Franciscan Friars). He was also a board member of Alle-Dag-Kerk, an interdenominational initiative that provides a service every Wednesday afternoon in the English Reformed Church in the Begijnhof in Amsterdam.

Gerard Timmermans

Airport chaplain

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Father Gerard Timmermans was dedicated on July 7, 1996. After having worked in Zambia for four years, he started in Amsterdam. He has worked for and with asylum seekers and refugees. Besides this work he was asked to give an impetus to the change in migrant communities. This is on a managerial level, nationwide and to a design by the diocese.

Father Timmermans joined the Airport Chaplaincy on January 1, 2008, and is connected to the Roman Catholic Airport Chaplaincy Foundation Schiphol.