wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] If memory serves

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

Note #7416 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

If memory serves
02342
September 5, 2002

If memory serves

Presbyterians marking 9/11 anniversary in myriad ways

by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE - On a sunny morning one year ago, a jetliner flew so low over Fairlington Presbyterian Church, in Alexandria, VA, that its undercarriage skimmed the treetops across the street.

"I heard a scream, and thought somebody had been hit by a car," says the Fairlington pastor, the Rev. Jan Edmiston, who had been in a church office, trying to get a clear picture on a TV set broadcasting news of an airliner that supposedly had hit the World Trade Center in New York City.
The scream came from a normally reserved employee, Wes Mitchell. 

"Wes said, 'It looks like it's going to crash,'" Edmiston recalls. "The plane was very low  so low it was obvious that it was going down.
"About then we felt the ground move, we saw the smoke. It was terrible."

 Soon came news of the unthinkable: The plane Mitchell said had "whipped by like a bullet" had slammed into the Pentagon, less than five miles away, and killed more than 200 people.
Five terrorists had hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 and flown it into the Pentagon. Other hijackers had flown airliners into both towers of the World Trade Center, killing about 3,000 people, and crashed another jet in western Pennsylvania, killing all aboard.
It was Sept. 11, 2001, the fateful day to be known evermore as "9/11".

Edmiston and her congregation, together with Presbyterians across the nation, are now making plans and preparations to commemorate the horrific events of that memorable morning.

The anniversary of the national tragedy will be acknowledged throughout the Presbyterian Church (USA) with special services, candlelight vigils, interfaith programs and online chats (see related story, "9/11 chat room: a place to grieve, pray").
Officials at PC(USA) headquarters in Louisville - where a special Sept. 11 prayer service will be held to mark the mournful anniversary - have created a host of 9/11-related worship and educational resources for the day, which are available at the church's Web site in a special Remembering September 11 section: www.pcusa.org/september11.

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) recently unveiled a publication - Out of the Depths: Voices of the Presbyterian Faith Community at Work After September 11- that includes other resources as well as the reflections of Presbyterians who came to the aid of survivors of the attacks (see related story, "Book is 9/11 Remembrance").
In the months after last Sept. 11, PDA, the PC(USA) Interfaith Relations Office and the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program came together to create an "Interfaith Listening" pilot project to foster dialogue between Christians and Muslims. The program is bringing two-person teams to the United States from 10 overseas nations this month to meet with PC(USA) congregations, governing bodies and communities and share their experiences in Christian-Muslim relations.

Music will be featured at many remembrance services, including one at the Fairlington church in Alexandria that will include a performance by a string ensemble and the lighting of 3,000 white candles, one for every person killed in the attacks.

"It's music, and we're celebrating communion," Edmiston says. "We're not having a lot of talking. We had a lot of discussion on what we should do."
Organizers say the purposes of such events are to allow participants to reflect on the tragic day in prayer and to call for peace and healing. 

         "I think healing comes through remembering," says the Rev. Jim Kirk, associate pastor of Moorings Presbyterian Church, in Naples, FL, who also is a member of the PDA disaster-response team. "I think if we allow ourselves to remember the pain, it also gives us the opportunity to remember the healing."
Kirk's church will be the site of a community interfaith worship service and of a "Gallery of Memories," a depository to which people can bring items in remembrance of the 9/11 victims. The ecumenical program is being sponsored by a Naples ministerial association. 

During the service, representatives of Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths will join in leading a litany for peace that will include passages from Hebrew scripture and the Koran.

"We're publicizing it as a service of remembrance and healing," Kirk says. "The remembrance part calls to mind the people who lost their lives. The healing part is to get together a diverse community in one place of worship, and be able to acknowledge what we do have in common, and our unity in the midst of diversity."

Some congregations, including Jan Hus Presbyterian Church in New York City, will mark the anniversary during regular Sunday worship services on Sept. 8. 
The Rev. Ruth Garwood, pastor of the Jan Hus congregation on the East Side of Manhattan, says services there will reflect not only the grief associated with the events of 9/11, but on the consolations of faith and community.

 "We're still carrying the grief of that day," she says. "I think, for all of us in New York, it's still very much a part of us and so (it's important) to acknowledge what we're carrying and to continue to grieve the losses of that day.
"I think  to connect and be with other people is going to be really important, and to remember that God is with us, no matter what."

Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, in midtown Manhattan, which lost a member that day, will host three remembrance services throughout the day on Sept. 11. And an interfaith service is scheduled for Sept. 10.

The Presbytery of New York City will open the doors and pews of its 12 "hub churches" all day on Sept. 11 and offer pastoral counseling to people of all faiths. In the "hub church" program, a dozen PC(USA) congregations in New York City have served as distribution sites for aid to economic victims, people who have lost jobs or income because of the events of 9/11.

"The hope is that there's going to be so much going on that there's not going to be a whole lot of quiet spaces," said Cornell Edmonds, the presbytery's associate executive presbyter of social witness and interim coordinator of disaster relief. "We want to be able to support the hubs, support the congregations and (provide) spaces where people can have a little bit of room, when and if necessary, to retreat from the commemoration."

Edmonds said the presbytery and PDA will co-sponsor a training event later this month on disaster preparedness for clergy and others who have been involved in the relief effort. 
He said the presbytery is providing worship materials and other resources to each of its 101 churches, and will itself commemorate the attacks during a regular meeting on Sept 28.
Events planned by the Mid-Kentucky Presbytery - the site of the national offices of the PC(USA) - include a Week of Peace program at Central Presbyterian Church in Louisville, starting on Sept. 8, that will feature a jazz Concert for Peace and discussions between Muslim and Christian women; and a panel discussion involving Muslim and Christian representatives of the Henry Martyn Institute's International Centre for Research, Interfaith Relations and Reconciliation, in Hyderabad, India, an ecumenical Christian organization that studies Islam and promotes interfaith dialogue and reconciliation.
The Rev. Mark Baridon, Central Presbyterian's pastor, says the week will be "a time when we especially remember what potential there is for violence" and an opportunity "for each of us to do our part to bring peace in the world."

Another event of the weeklong program will be the second annual Peace Run 2002, of which the PC(USA) is a co-sponsor. That event is dedicated to all victims of violence, including those who suffered in the 9/11 attacks.

The Peace Run is a combination of a five-kilometer run (about three miles) and a one-mile "family walk" through a Louisville park. Its other sponsor is the Peace Education Program, a non-profit organization that promotes non-violent conflict resolution among young people in Kentucky and Southern Indiana. The program is headquartered at Central Presbyterian, whose congregation supports it with funds from the Presbyterian Peacemaking Offering. 

The public is invited to participate in Sept. 11 observances at a number of Presbyterian-related colleges.

A raising of the American flag (to half-staff) is scheduled for Sept. 11 at Davidson College in Davidson, NC. Participants will also sing the national anthem and observe a moment of silence to mark the time when the first World Trade Center tower was struck.

The College of Wooster in Wooster, OH, will mark the anniversary with two commemorative events - an afternoon silent vigil and a panel discussion in the evening. A chamber orchestra from Charlotte, NC, will perform at a free concert titled Themes of Peace at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, NC. Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, FL, has scheduled an afternoon memorial service, and 9/11 remembrances will be part of the annual President's Convocation at Lyon College in Batesville, AR. 

The Rev. Matthew Kail, of Pittsburgh, 80 miles from the Somerset County (PA) site where the hijacked United Flight 93 plunged to earth, says memorial rituals can help people work through their sadness and gain perspective.

"I think one of the important reasons we as a church commemorate the event is to lift up prayers to God by way of lamentation," says Kail, interim pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh. "And also by way of prayers for America's return to the God of Jesus Christ."	
------------------------------------------
Send your response to this article to pcusa.news@pcusa.org

------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send an 'unsubscribe' request to

pcusanews-request@halak.pcusa.org