wfn.org | Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod Report on Attack

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@wfn.org>]

The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod (LCMS)
Board for Communication Services

LCMSNews -- No. 72
September 13, 2001

LCMS members witness best, worst of humanity with attack on America

By Paula Schlueter Ross

Rev. Bill Wrede has been out of the seminary for just a year, but already he
has seen the best -- and worst -- of humanity.

Wrede (pronounced REE-dee) was at home on Long Island when he heard about
the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center, so he called LCMS Atlantic
District President David Benke to ask if he should head for Manhattan to
help out. Wrede is a mission field developer for the deaf, with the
district.

"Sure, go," advised Benke.  So, Wrede hit the road.  He saw the first tower
collapse as he drove toward the city.  "It was like watching a silent
movie," he said.  The tower disappeared, he recalled, "in a big cloud of
dust."

When roadblocks prevented him from driving closer, he parked his car and
started walking, until an FBI agent noticed his clerical collar and gave him
a lift to within five blocks of the towers.

Soon Wrede found himself talking and praying with people on the street --
some were hysterical, some angry, some crying.  Many were searching
frantically for family and friends.

When the second tower fell, he ran, along with everyone else, to escape the
"incredible cloud of dust [that] came rolling down the street."

Now some eight blocks from the wreckage, Wrede was comforting -- and praying
with -- dazed firemen, so covered with dust that "you couldn't tell what
color their uniforms were."  Many were distraught because they couldn't find
their partners who lay buried in the rubble.

More firemen arrived and, noticing that Wrede was a minister, asked him to
bless them as they ran toward the demolished and smoldering buildings.  He
began anointing their foreheads with oil, saying a brief prayer: "May the
Lord bless you," Wrede recalled, his voice breaking, "and send His holy
angels to protect you as you serve Him today."

Wrede says he blessed at least 70 firemen that day, and he was impressed by
them all.  "These guys were determined to rescue people," he said.  If they
were scared, they didn't show it, he added.

In nearly 12 hours on the streets of Manhattan, Wrede said he witnessed
"incredible unity" among New Yorkers -- people opening their homes to
strangers, "giving away food, water, whatever they could."

When he realized he hadn't brought any money with him and needed to return
to his car for the trip home, Wrede asked a passerby for $1.50 for the
subway.  "He gave me $10," he said.

News is surfacing about those LCMS members and congregations most directly
affected.  Here's a sample:

-- At least three Atlantic District members were reported missing in the
World Trade Center blasts.  In the Southeastern District, which includes
Washington, D.C., all LCMS members are accounted for, according to President
Arthur Scherer.

-- Some LCMS pastors in culturally diverse northern Virginia are beginning
to see some negative attitudes directed toward local Arabs and Muslims,
Scherer said. We have to be careful, he added, "not to confuse the
prosecution of those who are guilty of these crimes with the persecution of
these ethnic and religious groups."

-- "Virtually every LCMS congregation in the New York City area was crowded
... with worshipers and vigil-keepers" on the night of the attacks, said
Synod President Gerald B. Kieschnick.  Numerous prayer services were held
Synodwide.

-- A member of Resurrection Lutheran Church, Garden City, N.Y., escaped one
of the World Trade Center towers by taking 57 flights of stairs.  He called
a colleague on the 99th floor, and reassured him that rescuers were on their
way.  The colleague said he was scared, and then the building collapsed.
"[The member] said that he `will always have the image of standing there
with the phone against my ear, watching the building collapse,'" said
Resurrection Pastor William Meyer.

-- Air Force Chaplain Larry Myers was at the Pentagon at the time of the
crash there.  Within minutes of the New York City attack, Pentagon personnel
were directed to evacuate.  "We did not even know the Pentagon had been hit
until we got outside and saw the cloud of smoke on the other side of the
building," Myers said.  He and the other chaplains helped care for the
injured, he said, both spiritually and physically.

-- On the day of the attacks, Atlantic District President David Benke
organized his district's response to the disaster and fielded calls from the
media.  He also met with first- and second-graders at his parish school in
Brooklyn, and visited Lutheran Medical Center, where about 40 Trade Center
victims were treated, mostly for smoke inhalation. Benke asked district
congregations to offer their services, as needed.

-- Debris from the attack came through the roof of the Lutheran Social
Services building just a block away, and staff members had to evacuate "on
the run."  There were some minor injuries.

-- Berkeley Bellamy, a student at Concordia College in Bronxville, N.Y., was
sure he had lost his wife, who worked in one of the Trade Center towers.
Campus Chaplain Deric Taylor drove a shaken Bellamy to pick up his son at
school, and then home.  As they entered the apartment building, Bellamy's
wife stood at the top of the stairs. She had left home 15 minutes late that
morning and had just gotten off the subway when she heard about an
"explosion" at the towers and decided to return home.

When he saw his wife, Bellamy "ran into the street, praising God and
yelling, `My wife is alive, my wife is alive!'" Taylor said.

(Some information for this story was contributed by Susan A. O'Connell,
director of marketing and public relations at Concordia College, Bronxville,
N.Y.)

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