Prayers and Tears at 'Ground Zero' By Philip E. Jenks November 9, 2001 -- The seven members of an ecumenical "Living Letters" delegation to the United States stared in stunned silence at the smoldering remains of New York's World Trade Center Thursday afternoon (November 8). "The pictures don't give you a sense of how terrible it is," said Bishop Samuel Azariah of the Church of Pakistan.  "It looked like a huge cemetery crumbled down." A chilly breeze blew the acrid smell of the ruins away from the team as they huddled on a makeshift wooden platform overlooking the site of "Ground Zero" where the twin towers collapsed following terrorist attacks on September 11, killing thousands of office workers, tourists, children, firefighters and police.  Detectives in the mayor's office approved the close-up visit.

Living Letters Team forms a prayer circle at Ground Zero

Members of the team fought back tears or wept openly as they shuffled off the platform and retreated to an open sidewalk.  They formed a tight circle and joined hands to pray, barely noticed by police and residents of south Manhattan. 

Jean Zaru, presiding clerk of the Religious Society of Friends in Ramallah, Palestine, said she was "profoundly grieved by the destruction and devastation at the site" and found herself thinking of Palestinian children and parents who die in equally senseless acts of violence almost every day.

The "Living Letters" team is composed of representatives of World Council of Churches member churches who came "to express the solidarity and compassion of the worldwide ecumenical fellowship" to US churches and to "discern together what September 11 and subsequent events mean for the witness of the churches" in the US and elsewhere.

The delegation is also here to reflect on "the long term consequences" of the attacks and the resulting allied military strikes in Afghanistan in the light of the WCC's Decade to Overcome Violence.

Meeting with pastors and church leaders 

 

"We still smell our loved ones in that rubble," said Bishop Stephen Bouman of the Metropolitan New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  Forty-seven children in the synod lost parents in the attacks, Bouman said, adding that many New Yorkers are still grieving and unable to move beyond the September 11 events. Bouman told of a local pastor who anointed the foreheads of firefighters as they entered the burning towers that day.  Later, survivors who were racing down the stairs of the towers described rescuers with "glistening foreheads" rushing upwards, soon to face horrible deaths when the towers collapsed.  "I think of Jacob's ladder," said Bouman, his voice thickening.  "People going up the tower, anointed, to their death - others coming down to escape.  And God was at both ends."

Bishop Stephen Bouman.

"People ask me how I felt that day," said the Rev. Carlos Alejandro, a Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) hospital chaplain.  "I felt almost silent.  The world is no longer a safe place where you can be sure the floor will stay beneath your feet."

Alejandro attended to victims at Bellevue Hospital, at a makeshift morgue at 30th and First Streets, and at Ground Zero.  "I held them and listened to their stories," he said.

The experience made him realize how much suffering he had never thought about, Alejandro said.  His mind went back to the Gulf War of 1991.  "I was never able to hear the stories from Iraq the way I was able to hear the stories here," he said.  "I was never able to hold someone from Iraq the way I could hold someone here."  Like thousands of others, he had been changed forever, Alejandro said.

Archbishop Aphrem Karim of the Syrian Orthodox Church of America headquartered in Mahwah, N.J., said the aftermath had been difficult and even dangerous for many Americans.  "After the attacks some of our people were harassed," the archbishop said.  "Two were killed in California and our interpretation is that they were killed because we have 'Syrian' in our name and people think we are Arabs or Muslims.  Our lives have changed.  None of us will ever be the same.  Innocent people are killed and we cannot return evil for evil."

Elizabeth Enloe of the Society of Friends has been among those who have been aiding the victims and rescue workers for nearly two months.  "The healers are now exhausted," she conceded.  "We're now holding conferences just to ask, 'how do you heal the healers?'"

When the allied bombing of Afghanistan began October 7, Quakers spoke out for peace and found their message was not popular," Enloe said.  "We're working out how to deal with people who can't accept pacifism," she said.  "They listen to us and say, 'get real!'  What is a truly viable alternative that we can offer the world?  We say (the terrorist attack) is a crime that should be responded to under international auspices, not bombs."

Bishop Mvumelwano Dandala, presiding bishop of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa and president of the South African Council of Churches, the delegation's leader, said he was "humbled to see the spiritual leaders already battling with questions that are broader than what happened to me, or us."

Noting the grief and anger that persists in many hearts, Dandala said he knew it is difficult for a pastor to go into a grieving household.  "I pray to God that the telling of the stories will lead to healing.  We know we can't impose ourselves on your grief but we will keep knocking until you are able to let us in."

The meeting with church leaders and pastors was hosted by the Most Rev. Frank Tracy Griswold III, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, one of three churches with national offices in New York.  The other churches are the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and the Reformed Church in America.  The Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, RCA general secretary, moderated the team's discussion with church leaders and pastors.

Arab Americans Also in Pain

The team was invited to a reception Thursday night hosted by H.E. Metropolitan Philip of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America at the chancery in Englewood, N.J.  The metropolitan described himself as an "Arab American" and joked that he was "a better American than George W. because I chose to be an American."

The metropolitan described the horror he felt on September 11 when so many innocent people died in attacks on New York and Washington and in the crash of a terrorist hijacked plane in western Pennsylvania.  He also expressed his horror at the people who were dying as a result of the bombing in Afghanistan.  "The poor, humble Muslims of Afghanistan who are killed each day are completely innocent of the attacks on our country," his eminence said.

Attending the reception were members of the Standing Conference of Middle Eastern Christian and Muslim Religious Leaders that Metropolitan Philip moderates.

Sheikh Sami T. Merhi of the Druze Council of North America, who lost loved ones in both the World Trade Center attacks and in Israeli-led terrorist attacks in Lebanon, said it was possible to be proud to be an American while deploring the bombing of Afghanistan.

The tragedies make it essential that Christians and Muslims come closer together, he said.  "A Muslim who reads his Qu'ran and believes it is already half a Christian because Christ and his mother are holy in the Qu'ran," he said.  "And a Christian who reads his Bible and believes it is already half a Muslim because the message of the Prince of Peace is our message, too."

Other "Living Letters" team members are:
Metropolitan Elias Audi, Greek Orthodox patriarchate of Antioch and All the East, from Beirut, Lebanon.
Rev. Fr. Nicholas Balachov, secretary for Inter-Orthodox Relations at the Department for External Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Rev. Jean-Arnold de Clermont, president of the French Protestant Federation, Reformed Church of France.
Rev. (Ms.) Septemmy Lakawa, teacher at the Jakarta Theological Seminary, Indonesia, and a member of the WCC Executive and Central Committees.

Accompanying the team is the Rev. Kathryn Bannister, a United Methodist clergywoman who is moderator of the WCC US Conference and WCC president, who will be with the team through the conclusion of its meetings in Chicago on November 10.  Also accompanying the team are Georges Lemopoulos, WCC acting general secretary, Jean Stromberg, director, US Office of the WCC, Sonia Omulepu, special projects officer of the US Office, and Philip E. Jenks, US Office communications officer.

In Chicago on November 9 and 10, the delegation met with representatives of local ecumenical councils and WCC member churches at the headquarters of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  On November 11, the team will brought greetings to four Chicago churches.

The delegation will fly to Washington, D.C., on November 12, where it will meet with representatives of the US Catholic Conference/National Council of Bishops and with representatives from the American Muslim Council.  The group will also attend worship Monday morning in Simpson Memorial Chapel of the United Methodist Building on Maryland Avenue.

The pilgrimage will conclude November 13 and 14 in Oakland, Calif., when the group meets with the US National Council of Churches general assembly.