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Minister and President’s Message
Our churches were there to handle the deep questions
October, 2001
By Nancy S. Taylor
Since the events of September 11th, people have flocked to our meetinghouses – as they have to other churches, mosques and synagogues. The frightened, the lonely, the stunned, the grieving have entered our churches and sought out our pastors. Journalists and photographers have lingered in our sanctuaries, photographed our vigils, interviewed our clergy, and published our prayers.
People have come to us for comfort. They have also come because we are stewards of sacred spaces where it is presumed God can be glimpsed, on occasion. And they have come to us because we are stewards of a rare and precious phenomenon: community. But, I am convinced that they have also come because it is given to us to handle deep and difficult matters. Many U.S. citizens dwell in the shallows, untroubled by large questions, untouched by injustice, ignorant of wracking poverty, uninformed of world events, and in denial about the interwoven layers of connectedness, complexity and complicity that bind the world’s people and nations together.
The events of September 11th deepened even the most shallow of our fellow Americans. Finding themselves in unfamiliar terrain, they turned to our churches and to our pastors, trusting that we are a people acquainted with the depths.
They came to our meetinghouses, inquiring about good and evil, life and death, heaven and hell, righteousness and justice, theodicy and forgiveness, sin and salvation, nationalism and world citizenship. Our pastors and our congregations were there. They opened their doors, dug out boxes of old candles, prayed prayers, chose hymns, organized vigils, rewrote sermons, comforted the bereaved, and held funerals and memorial services. Our churches created space for the stories we all needed to tell, for the community we all need to be part of, and for the sacred silences which absorbed our stories, thoughts, groans, tears, anger, and questions.
Our churches were there – and always will be – handling deep and difficult matters in the presence and in the company of our God.