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Churches aim for unity in Sept. 11th commemorations
One year ago. First Church of Christ in Longmeadow brought people in the community together to mourn one of their own: Jean D. Roger, a flight attendant on Ameriacn Airlines Flight 11.
The Union-News and Sunday Republican. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.> Related article: Concord church remembers one of its own September, 2002
By Tiffany Vail
As the anniversary of the horrific events of September 11th approaches, churches across the Massachusetts Conference are planning a wide variety of observances. Many will use candles and music. Some will use shoes and labyrinths.But one thing they all seem to have in common: a desire to bring their communities together for support and comfort.
From Martha’s Vineyard to Worcester, from Groton to Springfield, most United Church of Christ congregations surveyed by email say they plan to take part in interfaith observances on or around the 11th.
“The terrorists accomplished something they didn’t intend – bringing people together,” said Wendy Vander Hart, pastor of the Melrose Highlands Congregational Church and co-organizer of a community service that will be held in a municipal auditorium on September 11th.
“September 11th – last year and this year – is a day to not be in our separate communities, behind these walls that we have put up. It felt more important to do this together,” she said.
In Worcester, representatives of all faith traditions and ethnicities are being encouraged to hold prayer services of their own and to then process to City Hall Plaza for an interfaith candlelight vigil.
The Attleboro Area Council of Churches is planning a service called “Common Threads” to be held on the town common, and have invited people of all faiths – including those from Muslim and Jewish communities – to take part.
In Melrose, Vander Hart said, there was a particular need for people of faith to join together, as a response to a recent distribution of hate mail in the community. Several weeks ago, a 30-page document blaming the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks on Jews and blacks was distributed door-to-door in three neighborhoods.
Since the document raised the issue of September 11th, religious leaders in town felt strongly that they had to be united in their observances for that day. In the weeks and months ahead, they also plan to facilitate community-wide conversations on human rights.
At least two communities, Stoneham and Amherst, will reach out across faith boundaries in a unique way: with labyrinths.
United Church of Christ leaders in both towns are spearheading community plans for the placement of temporary labyrinths on their town commons for the anniversary.
Dirkje Legerstee, pastor of the First Congregational Church in Stoneham, sees the labyrinth as an ideal way for people of all different faiths – or of no faith – to find a sense of comfort.
“It’s universal. It’s not owned by any one faith community, which makes it appropriate for a public space,” she said. “I’ve found the labyrinth to be one very important spiritual tool. People of faith can pray and find God in the middle; people who are unchurched can find their own meanings. I think it will be very moving.”
Loren McGrail, a divinity student from the First Congregational Church in Amherst, agrees.
“The labyrinth brings out a whole different group of people who consider themselves spiritually inclined, but who are not necessarily activists,” she said. “The labyrinth is a container and an attracter for very different kinds of people – it’s not specific to one faith, but it’s spiritual.”
Both communities are also including shoes as part of the commemoration experience. In Stoneham, there is a goal of collecting one pair of shoes for each of the nearly 3,000 victims of the terrorist attacks. The shoes will be used to line the walkways of the common, as a visceral reminder of what happened.
“It gives you a sense of the vastness. Each pair of shoes is different, and it gives you a sense of individuality as well as a sense of the scope of an incredible tragedy. It takes away the anonymity – the stark, coldness of death,” Legerstee said.
In Amherst, service organizers will use the shoes to represent peacemakers. Later, they will attempt to ship the shoes to Iraq, through the economic sanctions.
“I’m expecting that the shoes won’t get through,” McGrail said. “But we’ll be calling the attention of Legislators, showing what the sanctions really are doing. If the shoes come back, we will give them to local agencies who can use them.”