Christians unite to offer suggestions to mark attacks

In our different faith communities, we will remember and lament in many ways. We offer here some memorials that may be appropriate in your community.

Consistent with New York City Mayor Bloomberg's and Governor Pataki's suggestion, we encourage houses of worship to open their sanctuary doors the entire day of Sept. 11 to welcome individual prayers and reflection; and to mark 8:45 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. (the approximate times when the first plane hit and when the second tower fell) with a symbolic action, such as ringing bells or lighting candles, as a call to remembrance, communion and hope with other houses of worship around the state and country.

In addition, to honor the memory of those who died and can no longer act for themselves, you can perform deliberate acts of kindness and compassion.

We invite you, our neighbors, to give something back to your community in honor of the dead and wounded from the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the hijacked airplane that crashed in Pennsylvania. Volunteering time or making a financial contribution to a cause of your choice in honor and memory of a victim is one way to become personally involved. You may consider contributing 10 percent of your time or 10 percent of a day's income to a local organization as a means of building community and working for positive social change.

Increasing our understanding of others can create community in ways beyond merely sharing schools and streets. Over the past several years, small groups of strangers have come together around the Capital Region to share their life experiences, explore ways in which race and racism affect our institutions and society, and move to action. Study circles on racism have provided a forum for healing by providing an opportunity to reflect, grow and ultimately change a community one person at a time. If you are interested in more information on those small discussion groups, contact the Capital Region Ecumenical Organization at 382-7505.

Concerned for the safety and well-being of our brothers and sisters of the Muslim faith, many of us have met several times with leaders of local Muslim assemblies to express our support and build new relationships this past year. Knowing that cooperation must be grounded in trust and good communication, we saw and heard these fellow Americans' grief and became aware of the subtle persecutions they endure. Like the local discussion groups on racism, our hope is to move beyond awareness and understanding in order to learn how to live and work together to address issues before us.

As our country struggles with the war on terrorism, we ask people to discuss and pray for guidance on our response, especially with respect to a potential invasion of Iraq. In addition to the risks for men and women in our military and retaliatory terrorist attacks, such a potential devastation to the peoples of that country is a concern for many people of faith.

Our faith gives us hope, and hope should drive us to action. We encourage you as individuals to take a step toward changing your community for good. During the season surrounding Sept. 11, we ask each of you, our neighbors, to join with us in commemoration; prayer for individual, national and international healing; and an action that leads you to a deeper understanding of what it means to live in community.

* The Rev. Bill Barney, district superintendent of the Troy Conference, The United Methodist Church;

* The Rev. Donna Elia, executive director, Troy Area United Ministries;

* The Rev. Philip Grigsby, executive director, Schenectady Inner City Ministry;

* Bishop Howard J. Hubbard, Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany;

* The Rev. Debra Jameson, the FOCUS Churches of Albany;

* The Rev. Jane Lang, field minister, Capital Area Baptist Association;

* The Rev. John U. Miller, executive director, Capital Area Council of Churches;

* Bishop Susan Morrison, Albany Episcopal Area, the United Methodist Church;

* The Rev. Richard Otterness, Synod executive, Reformed Church in America;

* The Rev. Cass Shaw, general presbyter, Presbyterian Church (USA);

* The Rev. Marian Shearer, Upstate New York Conference minister, United Church of Christ;

* The Rev. James Slater, dean of the Hudson/Mohawk Conference, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America;

(The writers are members of the Capital Region Ecumenical Organization, a network of Christian faith traditions.)

(09-05-02) [[In-content Ad]]