UCC national staff sends Sept. 11 ribbons of hope, peace to New York City

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

UCC national staff sends Sept. 11 ribbons of hope, peace to New York City

> Written by Jeff Woodard
> September 8, 2011

Containing handwritten prayers of hope and peace,
color-filled ribbons were on display in the
Amistad Chapel as UCC national staff paused
during its weekly worship service in the Church
House to mark the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The Collegium of Officers invited staff to write
prayers of hope for healing for New York City and
the rest of the world, including Washington,
D.C., and Shanksville, Pa., sites of the other
terrorist-commandeered airplane crashes.

The prayer ribbons will be woven into a tapestry
comprising varying textures, shapes and sizes,
and will be combined with other ribbons from
multiple interfaith settings as part of the
Ribbons of Hope Project. The tapestry will be
displayed at services in New York City?s Battery Park on Sept. 11.

?As we commemorate the events of September 11,
2001 we find this a ?yearning-for-hope, anxious
time in the world,? ? said Peter Makari, area
executive for the Middle East and Europe, during
the invocation. ?It is a time that finds so much
justice-and-peace action is needed to change
violence, hate and their effects ? with justice
and peace labors afoot in marvelously creative and interfaith ways.

In a reflection titled ?The Power of One? ?
emblematic of the UCC?s upcoming Mission:1
campaign supporting worldwide hunger-relief
efforts ? the Rev J. Bennett Guess, executive
minister for Local Church Ministries, said,
"We?re in the one-ness business. We try to bring
diverse and disparate peoples together."

?We teach that there is far more in our unity
than there is in our isolation,? added Guess.
?And we coax one another into believing and living as if that were so.?

Quoting the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Kim
Sadler, UCC editorial director for Publications,
Identity and Communication, said, ?In a real
sense, all life is inter-related; all people are
caught in an inescapable network of mutuality
tied in a single garment of mutuality. Whatever
affects one directly affects all indirectly.?

Guess reflected on how warmly the world embraced
the United States ?with one-ness? in the
immediate aftermath of 9/11, but lamented the
unrest of much of the past decade. ?Some would
say, including me, that we as a nation squandered
that opportunity. It?s my new-found hope and
prayer that, 10 years later, we can live into new
ways of abiding together in this world.?

Said Makari, ?We come together aware that, as
much as is being done, more ?one? is needed.
Shared mission, common dreams that make real
differences in the world when acted upon. We come
with expectancy, waiting for you, God, to guide.?

For further information please visit

<ucc.org/911remembrance/> or <ucc.org/mission1>.