wfn.org | September 11 remembered: 'We can be safe only together'

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Note #7421 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

12-September-2002
02347

September 11 remembered: 'We can be safe only together'

Commemorations express grief, resolve to overcome terrorism  

by Chris Herlinger
Ecumenical News International

NEW YORK - On a day unlike any other in American history, the United States
commemorated the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks with
solemn but simple ceremonies and acts of remembrance that paid tribute to the
dead and also underlined the nation's role as a global superpower.  

The commemorations in New York, Washington, DC and elsewhere in the country
looked both inward and outward, with ceremonies offering succor to victims'
families and to the grieving, while President George W. Bush and other
political leaders took the opportunity to affirm the resolve of the U.S. in
the war against terror.  

At the site of the fallen World Trade Center, the 2,801 people who died in
the attacks in New York were eulogized and their names read out one-by-one by
prominent New Yorkers, including the city's former mayor, Rudolph Giuliani.  

Later, during a nationally televised address with the Statue of Liberty as a
backdrop, Bush recalled "a year of sorrow, of empty places" but just as
keenly said the U.S. would pursue those who threatened the nation's security.
 

"'In the ruins of two towers, under a flag unfurled at the Pentagon, at the
funerals of the lost, we have made a sacred promise, to ourselves and to the
world: We will not relent until justice is done and our nation is secure.
What our enemies have begun, we will finish,"' Bush said at the end of a day
that for him included a visit to the World Trade Center site and
participation in memorial ceremonies at the Pentagon.  

Though Bush did not name Iraq's President Saddam Hussein, it was clear that
he was speaking of the Iraqi leader when he declared: "We will not allow any
terrorist or tyrant to threaten civilization with weapons of mass murder." 

Today, Sept. 12, Bush was to make a similar argument before world leaders
assembled at the United Nations.  

Earlier on Sept. 11, George Carey, the archbishop of Canterbury, seemed to
suggest that the U.S. should tread carefully as it deliberated possible
military action against Iraq.  

In a sermon delivered at Trinity Church, Wall Street, a prominent Episcopal
(Anglican) church located just blocks from the World Trade Center site,
Carey, the spiritual leader of the world-wide Anglican Communion, left no
doubt he condemned the terrorist acts that traumatized New York and the rest
of the nation.	

"What happened on September 11 last year was an act of evil and of profound
wickedness," he said. "Nothing can excuse it. Evil and the threat of evil are
constantly with us. That is a fundamental part of our Christian
understanding, and as Christians we are called on to combat and to resist
it."  

However, Carey seemed to suggest that the U.S. should proceed cautiously in
the realm of international relations, saying: "It is perhaps when we feel
most vulnerable that we may find it hardest to embrace this challenge of
interdependence." 

The U.S., Carey said, "with its immense potential to make a difference in the
world, faces the daunting challenge of wielding power and influence with
others in ways ... which do not undermine the interdependence on which our
welfare hangs. As they face this great challenge, the leaders of this nation
deserve our fervent and sincere prayers."  

One of those leaders, U.S. attorney general John Ashcroft, shared duties with
several prominent church figures at a commemorative service at Washington's
National Cathedral.  

Both Ashcroft and the Rev. Robert Edgar, the general secretary of the
National Council of Churches, the nation's largest ecumenical organization,
noted the international significance of Sept. 11, 2001. Both of them said
that the world community, not just the U.S., mourned those who perished that
day.  

"Oh, God, we join our hands in remembrance and ask you to link our prayers
with the millions of prayers being offered this day around the world for
peace and justice and reconciliation," Edgar said.  

The theme of human interdependence was also taken up by former South African
Archbishop Desmond Tutu.  

"We are bound to one another," said the prominent Anglican cleric and Nobel
Peace Prize laureate. "We can be human only together. We can be free only
together. We can be safe only together. We can be prosperous only together." 
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