wfn.org | Episcopalians: Episcopalians lead New York commemorations of attacks

[dmack@episcopalchurch.org]

September 12, 2002

2002-209

Episcopalians: Episcopalians lead New York commemorations of 
attacks

by Nan Cobbey, Jerry Hames, Jan Nunley and Jim Solheim

(ENS) Outside Trinity Parish and St. Paul's Chapel, gusts of 
wind whipped the dust of Ground Zero into the streets and eyes 
of New York, much as it had the ash of a year ago. Tracts and 
pamphlets, given out by various religious groups inviting the 
crowds on Broadway to prayer or repentance, swirled just as the 
memos and reports from the collapsing Trade Center towers had on 
that day. 

Inside, however, all was reverence and remembrance, as the two 
Episcopal churches most directly affected by the terrorist 
attacks on September 11, 2001, marked the one-year anniversary 
with prayer.

Trinity and St. Paul's scheduled a full day of meditation and 
reflection, a day filled with music, some of it written by 
members of Trinity's staff, including music director Owen 
Burdick. At 10:29 a.m., the time the second World Trade Center 
tower crumbled and collapsed, and then every hour on the hour, 
the bells in both churches rang out in mourning and memory. 

Hope and healing

Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey had come to New York to be 
with the church for a time of remembering. He preached at an 
unusual 11 a.m. Evensong, broadcast live over BBC Radio to 
audiences listening in Great Britain at what was the proper time 
there. The service was the centerpiece of Trinity's "Day of Hope 
and Healing." 

Carey joined the Lord Mayor of the City of London, the Right 
Honorable Michael Oliver, in presenting Trinity and the City of 
New York with a bell cast by the Whitechapel Foundry, the same 
foundry that cast the Liberty Bell and the bells of Trinity's 
"mother parish" in London, St. Mary-le-Bow. 

"May the bell ring out loud and clear to celebrate the spirit 
and resilience of the people of New York," said Oliver. "Fill 
now this bell with your heavenly blessing, that the voice of its 
ringing may banish the power of every evil from the city of your 
faithful people," Carey prayed, making the sign of the cross 
over the half-ton bronze bell. "May its sound extinguish all the 
arrows of their fiery destruction falling upon us, and by your 
all powerful and mighty hand, let every harmful wind be held 
back and driven away." 

The bell then rang out, filling the church with three clear 
tones.

Christened by the Lord Mayor "the Bell of Hope," it will be 
permanently mounted in the churchyard at St. Paul's Chapel that 
overlooks the former site of the World Trade Center. The bell is 
inscribed: "To the greater glory of God and in recognition of 
the enduring links between the City of London and the City of 
New York. Forged in adversity--11 September 2001." It will join 
another bell from St. Mary-le-Bow, sent at the end of the Second 
World War, that also has its home at Trinity.

Vulnerability and interdependence

In his sermon, Carey reminded those gathered that, in the face 
of evil, Christians are called to combat and resist  but also 
to remember their common humanity and to "do justice."

"Like it or not, we are involved in one another, caught up in 
one another's sufferings and joys, triumphs and tribulations 
This is as true of nations as it is of individuals," he said.

Yet Carey also had a warning for those who filled the neo-gothic 
church just blocks from Ground Zero, and for those listening in 
the street and sidewalk out front, or watching an Internet 
webcast of the service. "It is perhaps when we feel most 
vulnerable that we may find it hardest to embrace this challenge 
of interdependence," he said. "At times when we want above all 
to feel safe and secure, there is often a dangerous temptation 
to draw back rather than to engage to retreat behind walls that 
we may wish to believe are impregnable That urge may be 
especially strong when we believe we have not only right but 
also might on our side. When we have not only the motive but 
also the means. But surely the test of true greatness for 
peoples and nations must be that they are motivated by what 
should be done, not by what could be done."

Poignant moments were scattered throughout the liturgy, 
including an anthem by English composer Herbert Howells based on 
a text by the fifth-century Roman Christian, Prudentius. "Body 
of a man I bring thee, noble even in its ruin," sang the Trinity 
Choir. "Once was this a spirit's dwelling, by the breath of God 
createdNot though wandering winds and idle drifting through the 
empty sky, scatter dust was nerve and sinew, is it given to man 
to die."

Memories of service

Outside St. Paul's Chapel, where blustery winds of up to 50 
miles per hour swirled up dust from the World Trade Center site 
just a few hundred feet away, a long line of old and young 
waited patiently to enter the oldest public building in 
continuous use in New York City.

It was to St. Paul's, where George Washington had a pew, that 
recovery workers, police, and firefighters came for dry 
clothing, personal necessities, hot food, cots and pews upon 
which to sleep, physical therapy, and counseling, during the 
long months they toiled in the 16 acres of rubble behind the 
church.

Tied to the wrought-iron fence that surrounds the old chapel 
were thousands of signed shirts, hats, stuffed animals, badges, 
flowers, and other gifts that mourners had left in remembrance. 

Once inside, visitors passed through an exhibit that recounted 
the service volunteers had provided, along with testimonials and 
letters from grateful recipients. Banners and signs of 
encouragement from communities and churches across America, 
removed last June for the thorough cleaning of the building, 
were back in place, hanging from the balcony railing that 
circles the nave.

Throughout the day, St. Paul's was a venue for quiet reflection. 
Hundreds filed through hourly. Many moved to the pews for prayer 
and meditation, including police, firefighters, and emergency 
medical workers from across the nation.

Testament to ministry

"This is the most appropriate place to pay my respects," said 
Ramiro Zapata, an emergency medical technician from Austin, 
Texas, sitting on a bench outside the chapel as he listened to 
the names being read of the 2,801 people killed and missing in 
the attack.

Zapata came to New York on his own initiative. "I took some time 
off to come and heal myself," he said. "I was in Vietnam and I 
know the scars of many people will never heal."

Many of the visitors left a behind a memento to mark their 
visit. Zapata left an Austin firefighter's badge.

"Things keep appearing," said Lynn Brewster, graphic design 
director of Trinity Church who, with scores of volunteers, 
created the exhibit. "Two days before September 11, I got an 
anonymous phone call from a man, who said he was a World War II 
veteran, to tell me something had been left by the fence. 

"I found he had made a three-foot carving of upraised hands, a 
replica of the twin towers, from a 50-year-old tree, with the 
dog tags of a close friend and co-veteran who had died in the 
World Trade Center attack," Brewster said.

Diane Reiners, who worked at St. Paul's as one of four on-site 
coordinators of 1,400 volunteers in nine months, said the 
exhibit is a testament to every single day of their ministry. 
"People will see that giving is a joy," she said.

Once an actress, Reiners has left that profession to help found 
a company that advocates and facilitates volunteerism. "Through 
service we will change the world," she said. "It's the only way 
we will change the world."

A community reformed

A few miles uptown, the General Theological Seminary added its 
chapel bells to the chorus of New York churches in remembering 
those who died. In his sermon at the noon-hour Eucharist, 
Professor Mark Richardson invoked the image of firemen rushing 
into buildings and, at great personal risk, trying to save 
people because they believed that all life is sacred.

With the sound of military jets passing overhead, Richardson 
said it is inevitable to ask where God was on that fateful 
day--but it is a question that should be asked on other 
occasions as well. He said that it is "hard to let go because we 
are possessed by this occasion of seeing violence up close." The 
memory of those events has become "an ambiguous symbol that 
shouldn't be turned into self-righteous patriotism," he said, 
one that prevents us from seeing the larger picture.

The seminary responded quickly in the weeks following the attack 
on the World Trade Center, coordinating the hundreds of 
volunteers and the supplies at Ground Zero and ministering to 
rescue workers. Faculty members served as chaplains at Chelsea 
Piers, a few blocks from the seminary, which became a medical 
emergency center and temporary morgue. It also opened its chapel 
and campus to "a stunned citizenry."

"That involvement reformed the seminary community, connecting it 
to the neighborhood and the city in new ways," said Dean Ward 
Ewing. Admitting that the seminary community has had a tendency 
to be "cloistered," he said that "it opened doors that won't 
ever be closed again." 

A week after a new class joined the seminary community, those 
who had lived through the events a year ago are sharing their 
experiences and their reflections.

"It was a humbling experience for many of those who were 
involved," said Mary Louise Ball, one of the first volunteers. 
As they moved through the experience, however, "we developed a 
new gentleness with each other."

"I felt more alive during that time than at any time in my 
life," said Mary Morris, who headed the volunteer efforts at the 
seminary. "We were in an awesome, magnificent place where we 
could actually help--and we were able to devise a way to get 
others involved."

Joanne Ciacciarelli, another early volunteer, said that her 
involvement had been "a healing process" but that now, a year 
later, she is feeling "lost and empty," trying to process the 
implications of the tragedy.

A rainbow of religions

Further north, the Episcopal Church Center remained open on 
September 11. But this year its midtown Manhattan neighborhood 
was awash in security surrounding the opening of a new session 
of the United Nations, just a block away. "We ought to be here, 
where we were a year ago because this is the place, the space, 
where so many gathered," Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold said 
at a meeting of the staff in the Chapel of Christ the Lord. He 
noted that staff had been heavily involved in chaplaincy at 
Ground Zero--especially Bishop George Packard of Armed Services, 
Prison, and Healthcare Ministries. Packard was participating in 
commemoration services at the Pentagon.

Other Manhattan Episcopal churches marked the day with memorial 
services, including the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and St. 
Bartholomew's, where U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan joined a 
rainbow of religious leaders from a dozen faiths for prayers. 
Services held the night before at St. Thomas' Church on Fifth 
Avenue honored the dead from Great Britain.

------

--Nan Cobbey is features editor for Episcopal Life. Jerry Hames 
is editor of Episcopal Life. The Rev. Jan Nunley is deputy 
director of Episcopal News Service. Jim Solheim is director of 
Episcopal News Service.