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Churches open doors, hearts
October, 2001
By Tiffany Vail
Anneliese Bowers of the First Congregational Church in Somerville, lights a candle during a prayer service at the church on September 11th. (Photo by Jodi Hilton, Somerville Journal. Reprinted by permission.) Just three hours after the terrorist attacks began on September 11th, Pastor Mary Luti threw open the doors at the First Congregational Church in Cambridge.
“A steady steam of people came in,” Luti said. “Some sat quietly and prayed. Others poured out their soul and their grief in a place that they knew it was okay to do that.”
“Whether people are participants in local church life or not, the church – the open door – still represents a kind of refuge, a place where they can ask questions or where they feel they can have some kind of presence and solace,” she said.
It was a scene that was repeated over and over again across the Massachusetts Conference: churches big and small, urban, suburban and rural, opened their doors and their hearts to the people in pain in their communities.
By the evening of September 11th, many churches held hastily prepared prayer vigils and interfaith services, scenes that would be repeated over and over again in the coming days. Many churches held services on September 14th – which President Bush declared a National Day of Prayer and Solidarity – and yet still found they had Christmas- and Easter-sized crowds on Sunday, September 16th.
“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,” said Conference Minister and President Nancy S. Taylor. “And they have come to us because we are stewards of a rare and precious phenomenon: community.”
A handwritten sign posted at First Church in Ipswich on September 11th encourages prayers for peace and announces a service. (Photo by Robert Branch, Ipswich Chronicle, reprinted by permission.) In addition, many Conference churches – in Concord and Foxboro, in Milford and Georgetown – took on the task of memorializing those from their own pews who were victims of the violence.
“This was, of course, very visceral for us,” said David Fountain, Interim Pastor at First Church in Longmeadow, which lost 24-year-old Jean D. Rogér, a life-long member and a flight attendant on Flight 11, which crashed into the World Trade Center.
“It was a deeply moving moment for the congregation when that awareness went out, that one of our very own members had perished in the attack,” Fountain said. “What has occurred since then is that members of the congregation have found a heightened awareness of their values, and they’ve sought ways to increase their interior faith.”
As shock began to give way to anger in many communities, many churches took on the role of advocating for a reasoned response to the terrorism, and they spoke out against discrimination and retaliation against Arab-Americans.
At a service at Hadwen Park Congregational Church in Worcester, one member said she was concerned about an Arab-American neighbor whom she knew must be frightened of a possible backlash. She wondered aloud what she could do and was encouraged by other members to pray for guidance.
Pastor Judy Hanlon said that the next day, the woman gave the family an American flag and pole, tied with a purple ribbon, as a housewarming gift. She enclosed a poem that talked of how peace in the world must begin as peace between neighbors.
Churches also reached out to Muslim neighbors, expressing their support and inviting Muslim clerics to take part in interfaith services. Within a week, several churches were holding workshops and seminars in an effort to teach that the true meaning of Islam has no relation to the violence wrought by a few.
Judy Brain, pastor of the Pilgrim Congregational Church in Lexington, went online the day after the attacks and sent an email to the Islamic Center of Boston.
“I said that, on behalf of my congregation, I wanted to offer a message of support and solidarity. I said that we deplore any kind of prejudicial fallout, and that we would stand by them.”
Brain got an immediate response from Tahir Chaudhry, a Pakistani and Lexington resident. He quickly accepted Brain’s invitation to speak at a Lexington vigil that night.
The church has since made contact with the Islamic Center in Wayland, and is planning to have a dinner where people from the church and the center can get to know one another.
“This will be a first step, and it will be a learning experience,” Brain said.
