Saturday, September 11, 2010

9/11-The Church that Stood, and Stands

2015/A.M.: MSNBC showed film from 9/11/01; FoxNews covered ceremonies in NYC, at the Pentagon, and in Pennsylvania. Others, business as usual during the critical hours of memorial.  FoxNews interviewed people on the scene at the Pentagon and in the White House, as well as NYC. 


2010: "New Yorkers and family members came to honor the victim's of 9/11. ...Four moments of silence were held at 8:46 and 9:03 a.m., when the planes hit the towers, and at 9:59 and 10:28 a.m., when each tower fell." (Source: MyFoxNY.com, 9/11/10-"The Little Church that Stood"-by Adrian Carrasquillo)


The 2008 article, "The Church that Stood, and Stands," first posted on SearchWarp.com, 9/11/2008, the seventh memorial year:

2008-Remembering St. Paul's Church - ("The Church that Stood, and Stands"-SearchWarp.com, 9/11/08-by Jean Purcell):

Soon after September 11, 2001, my husband and I were in New York City. We went  to Ground Zero, where the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center had recently stood strong, towering into the skies above the Hudson River. Now, we stood in a long snake-line of people paying respects, alongside a black iron fence enclosing a uniquely special church. In line,  people wore professional, sports, and casual clothes. As if it were a normal day. Patience and quiet stood in line, eerily on display, where normally there would have been rush and noise in the normal city routine.

Ground Zero view outside St. Paul's Chapel-trinitywallstreet.org

The black iron fence in front of the church immediately next door to the towers bore memorial ribbons, flowers, and photos, the latter placed in hopes of finding family or friends safe, not a victim of the deluge of steel, fire, and smoking dust. Also attached to that church fence were written prayers and poems. The church, which had, amazingly, stood intact through the tragedy of that morning of September 11, 2001, now provided unique comfort and hope outside, as well as within. for rescue workers, pastors, priests, rabbis, medical people, and others who love their fellowmen and what America stands for, a haven for prayers and free food and drink for exhausted Ground Zero workers during brief, dusty breaks.

Today is the seventh memorial year of that 9/11. The World Trade Center site pit, which marks that infamous attack by fanatic-driven aim in the skies over the Hudson River from Boston, shows signs of change, a memorial setting in progress. When the memorial opens, I hope visitors will notice the church that stands nearby, embraced by that iron fence that bore loving notices for a long, long time. If ever that church suffers a direct attack, it is a great comfort to know that the Church it represents, the body of faith led by Jesus Christ, will stand eternally.

Acts of terror and the ideology of those who took over four American airliners will not win. Our faith, hope, togetherness, and spirit of determination and devotion to freedom will remain victorious. Those who love, treasure, and seek to protect freedom will vanquish their ideology and their efforts. May God bless all who honor the memory of the helpless, the rescuers, and the comforters who died on 9/11/01. Like that church that stood and still stands alongside the site of the World Trace Center's Twin Towers, may we always be prepared to serve, comfort, and offer hope to others.
"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved" (John 3:14-17). 

2001 -St. Paul's Church, next to the Trade Center site, went into action to serve food and water and provide brief relief and prayers for firefighters, medical rescue teams, police, and others...On that fateful day of reverberating shocks, America suffered multiple human loss at: World Trade Center Twin Towers, North and South, NYC; the Pentagon, VA, just outside Washington, DC; a farm field in PA. We do not deny. We do not forget. We remember the victims of terrorism that died that day, and the brave living who lost  yet went forward, due to their love.  
Enhanced by Zemanta

No comments:

Post a Comment