wfn.org | United Methodist bishop visits 'ground zero'

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Sept. 17, 2001 News media contact: Linda Bloom7(212) 870-38037New York
10-21-71B{402}

By Linda Bloom*

NEW YORK (UMNS) - United Methodist Bishop Ernest Lyght of the New York
Conference visited "ground zero" on Sept. 15, ministering to firefighters
and other volunteers searching for victims of the World Trade Center
tragedy.

Lyght was accompanied by his assistant, the Rev. Nat Grady, and the pastor
and associate pastor of Park Avenue United Methodist Church, the Rev.
William Shillady and the Rev. Bryan Hooper. 

"My ministry is a ministry of presence," the bishop told United Methodist
News Service about his decision to venture into that area.

The group had started its journey at Bellevue Hospital, where an outside
wall is plastered with photographs of the missing. Then the group moved on
to Metropolitan Duane United Methodist Church, next to St. Vincent's Medical
Center, which has served as a place of prayer for workers. Eventually, the
United Methodists found themselves near the ruins of 4 World Trade Center,
still smoldering, and led a group of eight firefighters in prayer.

"Some of these people obviously have been there from the beginning, and you
can see it in their faces," Lyght noted.

Danger was present, too, as the group found when it joined a crowd of
workers running while an alarm warned of a possible building collapse.

The bishop found John Street United Methodist Church, a historic building
near the World Trade Center, to be covered with soot but otherwise intact.
"We had prayer on the steps of John Street for the presence of Methodist
ministry in this city and for all the people who had been touched by this
tragedy," he said.

New York Conference officials are working with the United Methodist
Committee on Relief on the denomination's response to the tragedy. One
option, Lyght said, would be to use John Street and Metropolitan Duane
churches as bases for roving trauma teams.

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*Bloom is director of the New York office of United Methodist News Service.

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United Methodist News Service
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