wfn.org | An open letter to Seamen's Church Institute

[ENS@ecunet.org]

2001-259

An open letter to Seamen's Church Institute

     Dear Friends of Seamen's Church Institute,

     Just before 9 a.m. on September 11, the staff at 241 Water St. watched in 
horror the tragic demise of the World Trade Center a few thousand yards away.  
After the shock and numbness took its toll on the staff's shattered nerves, our 
beautiful chapel was a place of uncontrollable sorrow and grief.  

     But at our noon emergency meeting, as all the businesses and residences 
around us were frantically being evacuated, and  "building closed" signs were 
being posted on our blackened exterior, we held a phone conference with our 
chairman, George Benjamin. The decision was reached.  For our beloved 
headquarters and its staff our mission had changed. For the foreseeable future we 
would open the building as a refuge -- immediately, for stranded evacuees trying 
to leave Manhattan, and then as a bastion of food, comfort and safety for the 
thousands of rescue workers flooding into lower Manhattan. 

     For 24 hours we ran through our own stocks of supplies, and those brought 
from the Church of our Savior in nearby Chinatown.  With electric power and 
telephone service gone, the order of the day was cell phones and our huge outdoor 
grill . . .cooking hundreds of meals for fire and police officers, Con Ed workers 
and National Guard. Our stranded neighbors now joined our exhausted staff, 
bringing many offerings from their freezers, including steaks, hamburgers and 
crab legs! The grill has worked overtime until now.  Our communications director, 
Debra Wagner, cell phone glued to her ear, set up a supply chain, using Mary 
Morris of the Episcopal Church's General Theological Seminary as our conduit for 
food donations and volunteers,

     By Wednesday afternoon, Day 2, immediate supplies were finished. Then vans 
began arriving from New York's prestigious restaurants, which had kicked into 
action swiftly.  Daniel Boulud, the wait staff of the Union Square Cafi, 
Balducci's, Le Madeleine, Great Performances, and others braved the many 
roadblocks to supply the burgeoning food service at 241 Water St. 

     Church leaders mobilized quickly, as well. New York's Bishop Mark Sisk and 
Archdeacon for Mission Michael Kendall arrived in the morning of Day 2, and were 
the first to tour the "Frozen Zone", where ash and debris covered the horrific 
ruins of the World Trade Center. That afternoon and evening, Dean Ward Ewing of 
General Seminary worked non-stop to bring seminarians and donated hot food to 
SCI. On Friday, during the cold torrential rains which scoured the wreckage and 
chilled workers to the bone, Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold and his wife Phoebe 
arrived along with volunteers from the Episcopal Church Center. Photos by Debra 
Wagner and Preston Merchant, reproduced on these pages, were among the very first 
to come out of Ground Zero, and be placed on various church web sites and in 
Episcopal Life .

     A Eucharist for volunteers and workers with the Presiding Bishop was held in 
the SCI Chapel on the National Day of Mourning. It was particularly meaningful 
for volunteers from Trinity Church, Wall Street, closed since the disaster, who 
had been serving at the canteen day and night. Bishop Griswold urged all of us to 
recognize the "invitation" afforded by this tragedy to be Christ-centered people 
of peace and reconciliation. It was the Feast of the Holy Cross.  

     After two days, when the Port was closed completely, and our Chaplains were 
comforting seafarers restricted to their ships, the Rev. Dr. Jean Smith was 
coordinating three services of sorrow and remembrance for our Port Authority 
colleagues and port tenantsstunned and horrified by the devastation to the port 
community and those that manage our port, bridges, tunnels, and airports. So many 
were still unaccounted for. The services were held on the National Day of 
Mourning at Brooklyn, Port Elizabeth, and New York's SCI, all coordinated by 
Jean's hardworking colleagues.

     All SCI friends should take pride in the SCI staff, working 24/7 to serve 
thousands of meals. We honor our neighbors, especially Steve, Roger, and Pete,  
who with trucks, generators, and moxie were able to set up our site at 241 as a 
canteen, and then set up a secondary feeding site at St. Paul's Chapel,  one 
block from Ground Zero, by Wednesday. Money for "Right now!" supplies came from 
workers and volunteers at SCI who literally thrust their ATM cards and PIN 
numbers at the drivers making runs to the Pathmark 20 blocks north. By Thursday 
we were supplying a third feeding site at "The Pile" -- which was evacuated 
temporarily when the siren for "imminent building collapse" sounded.  It is up 
and running 24/7 now, 

     SCI gives thanks to God for countless volunteers and food donations,  
especially from Episcopal churches in the city and outlying suburbs. They are 
meeting emergency needs, braving checkpoints, bringing cheer, prayers, and 
literally tons of supplies which are being shuttled to Ground Zero.  Those church 
friends came from Heavenly Rest, St. Mary's Manhattanville, St. Bartholomew's, 
Church of Our Savior, General Seminary, Union Seminary, The Episcopal Church 
Center, and the Mid-Hudson Region, to name only a few of the early ones.   We 
give thanks for personnel from our training partners from the Western Rivers and 
the Gulf (including Sea River, Canal Barge, and Mid-South Towing), who were at 
SCI for training on that fateful Tuesday but stayed and pitched into the work 
with our staff.

     By Day 5 we were the depot for two sites at Ground Zero and feeding hundreds 
of police officers, firefighters, Con Ed and telephone workers and members of the 
National Guard at 241 Water St. Again our staff, in conversation with our 
chairman, George Benjamin, elected to continue this work until "normalcy" is 
returned to lower Manhattan.  

     We need your prayers, welcome your support, invite your participation. May 
God watch over all those who have been victimized by this tragedy, and may God 
strengthen all those called to a Ministry of Restoration. Our emergency number is 
914-282-2450  . . . and all donations are channeled through Mary Morris at 
General Seminary: 212-243-5150.

     Mr. George Benjamin

     The Rev. Canon Peter Larom

     The Rev. Dr. Jean Smith