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Churches there for one, all on 9/11
October, 2002
UCC Congregational in Boxborough, above, kept it’s sanctuary open through much of the day for people who wanted a quiet place to pray or meditate. Related articles:
> Finding ways to express the inexpressible (Oct., 2002)
> Gifts from the heart sent to Afghan children (Oct. 2002)
> Churches aim for unity on Sept. 11th (Sept., 2002)Links:
> United Church of Christ, Congregational, Boxborough
> Orthodox Congregational Church, MansfieldAt 12:30 PM on September 11th, a solitary woman walked into the sanctuary of the United Church of Christ Congregational of Boxborough, a tight frown on her face reflecting the pain of the day.
She walked up the aisle, stopping midway to sit quietly in a pew, her head bowed.
Leslie Drew, chair of the diaconate, had never seen the woman before.
“It’s nice to know we were here for someone,” she said.
That evening there was a very different scene at the Orthodox Congregational Church in Mansfield. So many people came for an interfaith service that there was standing room only, both in the sanctuary and in two downstairs rooms where people watched the service on closed circuit television.The service included three choirs, clergy from seven churches and a candlelight procession to the town common.
Sometimes alone, sometimes in crowds, people came to churches across the Conference seeking comfort and solidarity on the anniversary of the world’s worst terrorist attacks in history.
“It’s hard to know what to do today,” Rand Peabody, interim pastor at the Boxborough church, said that afternoon. “We’re all feeling our way – seeing what is most meaningful. We wanted to do something quiet.”
The Boxborough church kept its doors open through much of the day, and Peabody read from the Psalms each hour. Those who came could write in a Book of Remembrance kept at the back of the Sanctuary.
“May we rise from the ashes of loss and hatred to become a better, kinder people,” one person wrote in the book.
Another wrote: “Oh Lord... as we remember with great sadness the events of last year, we also lift our eyes upward towards you.”
The Edgewood Church Children’s Choir sings at an ecumenical service at the Orthodox Congregational Church in Mansfield which attracted approximately 500 people. In Mansfield, music was much of the focus. The Williams Chorale, a community chorus, sung selections from Mozart’s Requieum, which was performed by over 200 choirs across the world on September 11th. Two handbell ringers from the Orthodox church played Make Me an Instrument of Thy Peace, which was written to mark the first anniversary of the Columbine school shootings. And a children’s choir from The Edgewood Christian Church sang two songs.
Interim pastor Sally McLean said music seemed like the most appropriate way to unite the diverse group of people in attendance, which included both liberal and conservative Protestants and Catholics.
“It was a way that we could give that service a lot of energy and a lot of emotional impact without going over the top and being maudlin,” she said.
“And the music brought us together. We came from such diverse churches that we knew if we talked too much, we’d get into trouble.”
