wfn.org | Gripped by terror, Presbyterians in New York and Washington grapple

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org>]

Note #6830 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

with response
11-September-2001
01313

Gripped by terror, Presbyterians in New York and Washington grapple with
response

by Alexa Smith and Jerry Van Marter

LOUISVILLE - "It's been a tough day," the Rev. Craig Barnes, pastor of
National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., said just after noon
yesterday. "We're still trying to find all our members who might have been
in New York or who work at the Pentagon."

	Barnes said one of those still missing was the church treasurer, "who works
in the part of the Pentagon that took a direct hit." He said his
congregation also includes "a number of other high-ranking officials who
work at the Pentagon."

	He said the church staff initially was "mostly working with the spouses" of
the people who were missing and feared hurt or killed.

	Barnes said he had already held a prayer meeting and scheduled prayer
vigils for Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, and "the music director and I
have completely retooled our Sunday worship service; it's the first time
I've ever done that."

	"We're trying to make sense of this thing," Barnes said. "It feels like
when a pastor runs into the emergency room when a member of the church is in
desperate shape. ... We've been rushing to each other, holding each other,
reading certain passages of Scripture, praying for a sense of calm, trying
to calm down all the parents who are rushing in (to a church-run day-care
center) and taking their kids away. ... Just crisis-mode stuff."

	He added: "Please pray for us."

	After the kamikaze-style attack on the World Trade Center towers in New
York City, the Rev. Walter B. Tennyson immediately sat down at his computer
to put together a Service of Grief and Lamentation at Broadway Presbyterian
Church, which sits on the Upper West Side at the opposite end of Manhattan
from the World Trade Center.

	By 1 p.m., a service was underway, rich in psalms and in silence.  Opening
with Psalm 46:  "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in
trouble.  Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
through the mountains shake in the heart of the sea ..."  It closed with a
text from Revelation that proclaims a day when "Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more," a day when there will be "no
more night  for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign
forever and ever."

	With plenty of noise in the background, Tennyson said, "We're preparing the
church for folks to use as an overnight shelter for anybody who is trapped
in the city and we're planning on feeding more homeless people than usual
tonight.  This is also going to be a blood donation center."

	Tennyson said that he'd surveyed parishioners who work in the World Trade
Center or nearby and everyone was safe.  An elder who works on the 16th
floor of the center was sick today with pneumonia and did not go to work;
he'd also learned that his colleagues were safe.
Elenora Giddings Ivory, director of the PC(USA)'s Washington Office, is back
home now, wondering whether to pick up her grandchildren at school. Their
father is one of thousands who is stuck on the Metro, the District of
Columbia's subway system that is clogged with workers evacuating the city.

	Ivory was just beginning the Washington Office's weekly Tuesday briefing
when the building shuddered, reverberating from the explosion caused when a
suicide hijacker crashed a commercial airliner into the nearby Pentagon,
collapsing one side of the five-sided building.

	Ivory had returned Monday from Durban, South Africa, where she was one of
19 Presbyterians attending the United Nations' Conference on Racism. She was
trying to figure out how to interpret the U.S. delegation's walkout, along
with the Israelis, and the angry reaction to it by other delegations and
groups around the world.

	"Washington is very somber right now," she said, adding that the PC(USA)'s
Washington staff evacuated their offices right across from the Supreme Court
when Capitol Hill employees began leaving.  "It took me two hours to get
home driving," said Ivory, who lives just 13 blocks from her 100 Maryland
Avenue office.

 	Across town, the Rev. Alice Anderson, pastor of the New York Avenue
Presbyterian Church, hasn't left her house.  She was working on the church
bulletin when the attacks in Washington and New York occurred and concurred
with her staff that programs at the church should be called off and folks
sent home.

	That meant that alternate arrangement had to be quickly made for the
mentally ill adults in the church's day treatment center.

	"It is too soon for us to really be able to tell [who has been affected
within the congregation, Anderson said, noting that many parishioners of New
York Avenue work at both the Pentagon and the State Department.  "It is very
difficult to reach anybody right now," she said, because the city's phone
lines are too jammed to reach folks.

	"One-third to one-half of our people are federal employees.  This will have
a profound affect on us.  I just don't know yet how to respond," said
Anderson.

	Just hours after the blast, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church  in New York
threw open its doors to folks who wanted to come in off the street and talk
with someone or pray.  Deacons and elders stayed in the chapel to sit with
New Yorkers who are stunned by the tragedy or worried about the safety of a
loved one.

	Organized prayer services were under way by early afternoon.

	A prayer service was also held today at the offices of the Jarvie
Commonweal Service, a PC(USA)-sponsored outreach ministry to elderly
residents of New York City. "We are grateful that the Jarvie staff are all
fine and our offices are not affected directly," said Jarvie staffer Mary
Dugan. One staff member's elderly husband departed lower Manhattan for an
appointment in Brooklyn just about the time of the World Trade Center
destruction. He was safe.

	Jarvie staff called beneficiaries throughout the day to reassure them.

	Anxiety in the offices of National Capital Presbytery eased when executive
presbyter Teri Thomas was reported safe in Ireland.  She had been in Jordan
with a group of ministers and laypeople from the presbytery, but will now be
stuck until commercial air traffic resumes.

	"As you can imagine, the roads are clogged with people, as the government
has shut down.  All of us here at the office are just sitting tight and
praying ... There's just no sense trying to get home right now," said
National Capital stated clerk Richard McFail.

	He said Western Presbyterian Church near the State Department has been
turned into an emergency day care center for the children of State
Department employees. Officials there opted to move the kids to safer
quarters, when rumors circulated that the State Department had been targeted
by the terrorists.

	The Rev. John Wimberly, pastor of the Western church, said the coming days
will be both a spiritual and pastoral challenge for folks in the District of
Columbia.  "So many people that go to our churches work for the federal
government.  And suddenly, their workplace is a target.  What's the
psychological impact of that?  The spiritual issue is that, as Christians,
we're supposed to live hopeful, rather than fearful lives  but this
produces a climate of fear.

	"And this is going to be a big issue that congregations and pastors will
have to deal with in the days ahead."

	Although the numbers of dead in Manhattan are not yet known, officials fear
high casualty counts from the collapse of the twin buildings that towered
over the city's impressive skyline.  About 50,000 people work in the
buildings normally.

	"Outside, ironically enough, it is a beautiful day, gorgeous.  Just a nice
day to be out walking around," said Greg Cootsana, an associate at the Fifth
Avenue church, who added that the streets, however, are swamped for a
different reason:  Buses, trains and the subway are shutdown, so workers
who've been put out of unsafe area can't get out of the city.

	"Almost everybody is stunned.  It is like a movie, surreal," said Cootsana,
who said that one member who works at the World Trade Center was late for
work this morning and is safe, but her colleagues were not so lucky.  "It's
an odd feeling to think that the people you work with may be in the rubble,"
he said.

	Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission personnel will be staying close to
home tonight and in the coming days, according to the denomination's
security policies.  "In times of crisis, we ask them to stay close to home
and to stay in touch with knowledgeable partners," said Will Browne of the
Worldwide Ministries, who said it is wise for U.S. citizens abroad to be
especially sensitive to anti-American sentiments at moments like this.

	"At this point, we're not unduly concerned with mission personnel," he
said.

	General Assembly Council deputy executive director Kathy Lueckert said she
had heard from several traveling national staff members, who were all
reported safe.

	Worldwide Ministries Division coordinator for the Middle East Victor Makari
was okay in Egypt. Mission Support Services official Nagy Tawfik is safe in
Armenia. WMD Caribbean coordinator Julia Ann Moffett and international
health ministries director Dorothy Brewster-Lee were due to return home from
Haiti today but their departure will undoubtedly be delayed. Self
Development of People coordinator Fredric Walls and Southern Africa
coordinator Jon Chapman were en route to Angola when the attacks occurred
and they were both reported safe.

	Lueckert said no national or presbytery-sponsored study tours are abroad at
this time.
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