wfn.org | Pastor gives witness among the ruins

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Nov. 1, 2001       News media contact: Linda Bloom7(212) 870-38037New York
10-21-71B{507}

NOTE: This report is a sidebar to UMNS story #506.

NEW YORK (UMNS) - As the Rev. Greg Carpenter moved among the rescue and
construction workers at the site of the former World Trade Center, he
realized he needed something to give to them.

So Carpenter, pastor of Haven United Methodist Church in East Providence,
R.I., called Cokesbury and convinced the denominational supply house to send
him 100 angel pins at a reduced price. In the late night and early morning
hours he spent at "ground zero," he distributed the pins and a note
including his name and his church affiliation. "That would help break the
ice," he said.

A volunteer chaplain for the East Providence Police Department since 1996,
he was sent to the New York area the week of Oct. 15 by the International
Conference of Police Chaplains and then assigned to work with the Critical
Incident Stress Management Teams for the Port Authority of New York and New
Jersey.

Carpenter has training in the critical incident stress technique, which is
used to "help debrief and defuse people" in hopes of preventing
post-traumatic stress. He also has worked as a licensed marriage and family
therapist for 18 years.

But the effects of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, of course, have been a
bit different than other situations. Because the trauma is considered to be
ongoing, he explained, there was no formal debriefing process. "What we did
there was pretty much one-to-one peer support," he added.

When such a traumatic event first occurs and people, including the rescuers,
are still in shock, they often want to talk about what they've witnessed.
"Then they have to zip themselves up because they know they have a job to
do," he said. As a chaplain in this situation, "you don't necessarily unzip
people because they have to keep going," he said. 

Carpenter ended up spending most of the week at the site itself, with full
clearance as a police chaplain, working the 10 p.m. to 10 a.m. shift. Being
there in the early morning hours also strengthened his credibility, he said,
because it was clear that he was not just one of the visitors who
occasionally tour the site.

His own reaction to the devastation was not overwhelming emotion but a
"sense of awe" that only allowed him to soak in the impact bit by bit. On
one level, the area where the twin towers and other collapsed World Trade
Center buildings had stood resembled a construction site. On another level,
it looked like a crime scene. "Then there would be things that reminded you
that this is hallowed ground," he said.

Among the reminders were the notes and pictures pinned to memorials
surrounding the area and the sight of about 100 American Airline employees,
in uniform, visiting the site for the first time.

"What's most vivid for me is the faces of the people I had in-depth
conversations with," Carpenter said. Some people talked about anything but
Sept. 11, while other people "were clearly dislocated by the events."

The church, he believes, can help in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks
by showing "a way back to hope" and offering a light in the darkness.

In Carpenter's view, his presence at the site brought witness of the love of
God "and a different reality to the reality that was staring you in your
face."

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United Methodist News Service
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