The September 11th attack
Nation's churches fill with Sunday prayer
| • | Prayer, patriotism mix in churches |
Associated Press
Congregants clutched American flags with their prayer books. "God Bless America" and "My Country 'Tis of Thee" rang from church organs. Ushers distributed tissues to weeping parishioners.
Associated Press
Across the nation yesterday, Americans took comfort in the rituals and rhythms of church worship, struggling to comprehend the terrorist attacks that have shaken the nation.
New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and mayoral candidate Peter Vallone attended a special Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York to honor victims of last Tuesday's attack .
"We have, all of us, God's children, suffered an incredible loss in the family," said the Rev. Gary Miller of Asylum Hill Congregational Church in Hartford, Conn. "We are, all of us, trying to make sense of the senseless."
At the majestic St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, parishioners erupted in applause during Mass when Cardinal Edward Egan praised the work of the rescue crews, and Gov. George Pataki and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
"The extraordinary goodness of our people has marched alongside the pain and the hurt," Egan said.
Hundreds of people who couldn't fit inside jammed the streets, listening to the service though speakers outside.
Many ministers nationwide said attendance rivaled that at Christmas.
"I've haven't been here regularly," said Jeanie Frickey-Saito, 29, who along with her two young children and husband attended services at the Quakers' First Denver Friends Church. "We just kind of woke up this morning and decided come to church, just looking for some answers, looking for some peace."
Thousands in St. Louis gathered at a park for an interfaith service, cheering when Imam Waheed Rana, of the Islamic Foundation of Greater St. Louis, stood to speak. Muslims nationwide have been the target of revenge assaults since Tuesday's destruction.
A block from the site of the 1995 Oklahoma federal building bombing, St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral held special services, just as it did days after the tragedy there.
By 8 a.m., worshippers filled the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where Martin Luther King Jr. preached his first sermon at age 17. "Taps" echoed through the First Baptist Church in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., as some 3,500 worshippers silently prayed.
"Where is God? How could God let this happen?" asked the Rev. Bob Winstead, senior pastor at Ebenezer. "I don't have all the answers. I wish I had just the right words to make it better. But these are not easy questions."
Many pondered the war ahead.
"I think young people are going to have to defend our freedom like I did," said Charles Koenig, a Korean War veteran who was among more than 35,000 people who attended a service at the Minnesota Capitol.
At a mosque in Chicago, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, condemned the "wild beasts" who perpetrated the assault and supported harsh punishment for them.
But Farrakhan also argued U.S. foreign policy fostered hatred overseas, a feeling that could change if the government did more to help poor countries.
"As Muslims, the greatest thing we can do right now is pray because it looks like this war could take American soldiers into Muslim countries and many innocent Muslims could die," Farrakhan said.
Back in New York, the historic Episcopal Parish of Trinity Church Wall Street, in the shadow of the World Trade Center, moved services to a Roman Catholic shrine.
Trinity is filled with ash and shards of glass. Children were filing into the parish preschool when the first plane struck Tuesday. Stunned rescue workers staggered into the church moments after the crash.
"Human words are inadequate, and so we come together to turn to the word of God," said the Rev. Samuel Johnson Howard, vicar of Trinity, a parish that dates back 300 years.
Yesterday, religious leaders from Lebanon to Australia also organized special worship. Many countries lost citizens in the attacks.
The head of Lebanon's Maronite Church, Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, in a special Mass condemned the "heinous crime" against the United States. In Dominica, a Caribbean island nation of 75,000, the government declared a national day of prayer yesterday.
The pope offered "my heartbroken and shared thoughts" to Americans and prayed that victims' families would find comfort. He urged restraint in efforts to find the terrorists.
Before the pontiff arrived in Frosinone, 50 miles southeast of Rome, a local choir sang "Blowin' in the Wind" and waved an American flag.
