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Aug 18, 2011 | Matthew Davies

Presiding Bishop Calls for Reflection on 9/11 Anniversary

[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal Church and other religious leaders are planning interfaith events to mark the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks when almost 3,000 people perished after hijacked planes slammed into the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

 

The Executive Council, at its June meeting, invited all Episcopal communities "to open the doors of their institutions" during the Sept. 10-11 weekend to commemorate the anniversary "with acts of prayer and remembrance, service, creativity, interfaith cooperation, education, community building, and fellowship, offering our institutions as active, accessible sites of healing for our local communities."

 

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said in an Aug. 18 statementthat the anniversary is "an opportunity for reflection," adding that the Episcopal Church "continues to work for healing and reconciliation."

 

"The greatest memorial to those who died 10 years ago will be a world more inclined toward peace," said Jefferts Schori, who will preach at 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 11, at St. Paul's Chapel in New York, a few meters from where the World Trade Center stood, and at 11 a.m. at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine.

 

Acknowledging that "many people died senselessly that day, and [that] many still grieve their loss," the presiding bishop said, "We believe there is hope."

 

Following the terrorist attacks, she said, church communities in many places "began to reach out to their neighbors of other faiths, offering reassurance in the face of mindless violence. That desire for greater understanding of other traditions has continued, and there are growing numbers of congregations engaged in interfaith dialogue, discovering that all the great religions of the world are fundamentally focused on peace."

 

In the aftermath of 9/11, Trinity Church and St. Paul's Chapel in Lower Manhattan became sanctuaries for those seeking consolation.

 

For eight months after the attacks, St. Paul's Chapel served as home to a volunteer relief effort, "becoming a place of renewal and inspiration for Ground Zero's physically and spiritually weary," a Trinity Church press release said.

 

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