Artist sues Trinity Church for removal of 9/11 sculpture

From Newsday-

A Pennsylvania artist whose sculpture memorializing a sycamore tree destroyed in the Sept. 11 attacks was displayed in the courtyard of Trinity Church in lower Manhattan has filed an unusual lawsuit in Manhattan federal court, challenging the church’s removal of his piece.

Sculptor Steve Tobin, who gave his three-ton “Trinity Root” bronze to the church for display on its site just south of the World Trade Center, said that by moving it to Connecticut the church violated the federal Visual Artists Rights Act. He wants damages and an injunction.

“Its purpose was to memorialize the site of a 9/11 event of grace and celebrate the tree’s role and sacrifice,” the lawsuit said. “The intent, spirit and design of the sculpture – its aesthetic essence and spiritual meaning – were inextricably specific to that site.”

More here-

http://www.newsday.com/news/new-york/artist-sues-trinity-church-for-removal-of-9-11-sculpture-1.13461506

In the Spirit: Did priest’s work at ground zero cost him life?

From Wisconsin-

In the weeks and months following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, dozens of clergy members attached to federal agencies rotated through the World Trade Center, praying over the pulverized remains of victims and providing spiritual support to rescue workers.

One of those clergy members was the Rev. Thomas Winslow, an Episcopal priest from Pewaukee and chaplain for the Wisconsin FBI. The week he spent there, in November 2001, would define his final decade. It gave him a deep sense of pride in his country and its people, but it also possibly killed him.

Winslow died Aug. 23 at UW Hospital at age 68. His death, of acute respiratory distress, now becomes another murky statistic in the ongoing debate over health problems suffered by so many of the people involved in the post-9/11 cleanup.

Winslow was convinced that the toxic air he breathed at ground zero triggered serious sinus and bronchial problems, then pneumonia, gastric reflux disease and, ultimately, lung failure.

Read more:

http://host.madison.com/lifestyles/faith-and-values/religion/in-the-spirit-did-priest-s-work-at-ground-zero/article_8c6030ae-f3a8-11e1-bfb9-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz25PE0QcQt

9/11 Revisited

From Canada-

This is a day of mixed emotion for churchgoers in North America. On the one hand, many parishes are celebrating some form of “Round Up Sunday” – when the congregation comes together after the summer hiatus. Sunday school registration takes place, a parish luncheon is served and ministries rev up again.

And yet, today happens to be September 11 – and ten years ago on a bright, sunny Tuesday morning the worst attack on any country in the western hemisphere happened in New York City, in Washington, D.C. and in the skies over Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Many of us know where we were and what we were doing when we heard the news of the first attack. It was about 6:00 am in San Diego and I was in the bathroom shaving when Heather called out about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center. I immediately thought it was the pilot error of a small aircraft. Only when I saw the images on the television did I realize something far more terrible was happening.

The horrors of hell – how else do you describe that day? The 9/11 attack was an act of unmitigated evil designed to inflict the maximum number of casualties possible in the most shocking way possible.

More here-

http://www.anglicanjournal.com/nc/news-update-items/article/911-revisited-10035.html

VIDEO: St. Paul's Chapel Pays Tribute to 9/11 Victims

From New York

Manhattan's St. Paul's Chapel held an early morning service to honor the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center.

The chapel, an Episcopal church located at 209 Broadway, was a haven for first responders following the attacks.

Check out Patch's coverage of the early morning service on Sunday and the scene in front of St. Paul's.

http://foresthills.patch.com/articles/video-st-pauls-chapel-pays-tribute-to-911-victims#video-7709070

'Remember What The American Spirit Is'

From New Jersey-

There are no words, yet Jonathan Clifford had to find them.

Ten years after a series of coordinated terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people and both horrified and united an entire nation, Clifford, 22, took to the lectern at Trinity Episcopal Church Sunday to encapsulate as best he could the emotion and the significance of Sept. 11.

“There’s no combination of words in the English language that can aptly describe the feeling that day,” said Clifford, the featured speaker at the Burlington County 200 Club’s annual 9/11 memorial service. “It was nerve-racking, cause I don’t think words can do it justice ... I wanted to do the victims justice.”

A crowd of police officers, firefighters and paramedics, along with everyday citizens and several politicians, including Mayor John Button and U.S. Rep. John Runyan, filled the church to hear Clifford speak.

At 13, Clifford had gone to Ground Zero only months after the attacks to volunteer at St. Paul’s Chapel, an Episcopal church a block from the World Trade Center towers that became both a memorial and a place of rest and refuge for recovery workers in the days after the attacks.

More here-

http://moorestown.patch.com/articles/remember-what-the-american-spirit-is

Priest Recalls the First Days After Flight 93 Crash

From The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette-

On the sunny morning of Sept. 12 , 2001, a Catholic priest and FBI chaplain from Pittsburgh stood on an overlook where a command post had been established above the Flight 93 crash site, said the prayers for burial and consecration and cast holy water toward the crater.

"By the Lord's own three days in the tomb he hallowed the graves of all who believe in him and made the grave a sign of hope and a promise of the resurrection, even as it claims our mortal bodies," the Rev. Joseph McCaffrey prayed at the first official consecration of the Sacred Ground where the Flight 93 National Memorial was dedicated Saturday.

"We pray that all who lost their lives here may live forever in the mercy of God."

Father McCaffrey, who became a law enforcement liaison to the Flight 93 families of the 40 passengers and crew who lost their lives, returned for the dedication in Somerset County. He spent hours stuck in traffic and wasn't able to speak with them prior to the ceremony. But he had a sense that his ministry at the site had come full circle, even as he worried that the nation wasn't practicing the lessons of unity and moral courage that the passengers and crew gave their lives to demonstrate.

Read more:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11254/1173883-84.stm#ixzz1XdjSBTN4

'Remember To Love': A Sept. 11 Concert From Trinity Church, NYC

From NPR- (with video)

Located just blocks from the World Trade Center, Trinity Church and its St. Paul's Chapel have been part of New York's spiritual and musical life for centuries. Trinity was chartered as an Episcopalian church in 1697; George Washington worshiped at St. Paul's.

After Sept. 11, the church became an even more beloved focal point for its community. Although it is located just across the street from the World Trade Center, St. Paul's somehow escaped any physical damage. It quickly became an integral part of the recovery effort, and the chapel was a physical and spiritual refuge for rescue workers in the aftermath of the attacks.

The chapel was offered to first responders as a place to eat, rest, sleep and pray. A dedicated roster of hundreds of professional musicians took turns playing for the firefighters, police, emergency workers, construction workers and other professionals and volunteers who gathered there day and night. This musical ministry lasted for eight full months after Sept. 11.

More here-

http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2011/09/06/140221544/remembering-sept-11-at-trinity-church-nyc

Services in memory of 9/11 held in US and across the world

From The Church Times-

CHURCHES in the United States and around the world will hold memorial services on Sunday to mark the tenth anniversary of the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington. The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States, Dr Katharine Jefferts Schori, said that the anniversary will be “above all an opportunity for re­flection”.

Dr Jefferts Schori is scheduled to preach twice on Sunday in New York, where 2606 people died in the World Trade Center and on the ground after two hijacked planes crashed into the Twin Towers of the Center. She will preach at St Paul’s Chapel at 7.30 a.m., and at the Cathedral Church of St John the Divine at 11 a.m.

In a statement last month, Dr Jefferts Schori said: “This tenth anniversary is above all an oppor­tunity for reflection. Have we be­come more effective reconcilers as a result? Are we more committed to peacemaking? The greatest mem­orial to those who died ten years ago will be a world more inclined toward peace.”

On Sunday evening, President Obama will speak at Washington National Cathedral during “A Concert for Hope”. The Dean, the Very Revd Samuel Lloyd, said: “Ten years ago at the Cathedral, the nation gathered after tragedy with President Bush; at the Cathedral this year, we mark the passing of a decade since a day that changed the life of every American.”

The Bishop of Washington, the Rt Revd John Chane, will lead an interfaith prayer-vigil at Washington National Cathedral; the Cathedral’s largest bell, the Bourdon bell, will be tolled at the exact moment that the planes struck.

More here-

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=117655

Washington National Cathedral moves 9/11 events

From Washington DC-

Washington National Cathedral officials scrambled Thursday to move and reschedule some of the nation’s most high-profile Sept. 11 commemoration events after a towering crane toppled over on the historic grounds a day earlier.

The crane, with a lifting capacity of 500 tons, had been brought in to help reconstruct the more than 100-year-old iconic Episcopal structure after it was badly damaged in the Aug. 23 earthquake. But the machine toppled over just before 11 a.m. Wednesday, and officials say they still have no indication what caused it to fall.

On Thursday, two workers were hospitalizedafter another accident, but church officials said they could not elaborate on what happened.

Events at the cathedral are scheduled to begin Friday. Church officials said they quickly pivoted and started looking for other host sites. The cathedral was not damaged further by the falling crane, officials said, but events were moved because the crane had played a key role in stabilizing spires and statues atop the church that had been broken during the earthquake.

More here-

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/washington-national-cathedral-moves-911-events/2011/09/08/gIQAqgwODK_story.html

Spirituality forged in smoke and fire

From ENS-

As the senior military chaplain for U.S. Joint Forces Command, I was in Arlington, Virginia, with my colleagues for an annual meeting of the senior Armed Forces chaplains assigned to the command staffs of our nation's Joint, or unified commands. On the morning of Tuesday, the 11th of September, we were riding in a small bus going down the hill from our hotel to the Pentagon where our meeting would be held in an E-ring conference room near the Pentagon Athletic Center entrance.

As stated in the opening sentence of the 9/11 Commission Report, the day "...dawned temperate and nearly cloudless in the eastern United States" (p. 1). Driving past Arlington National Cemetery I recall thinking how placid a place that was. Then I came back into reality and remembered the funerals I had done there as a Navy chaplain who had worked next door in the Navy Annex (to the Pentagon) a couple of years earlier.

We were a few minutes late getting to our meeting because our driver, a man with Middle Eastern features, had missed the turnoff to the Pentagon. We had to go into the District of Columbia, turn around and come back for the correct turn into the Pentagon parking lot.

All in all, it was a pretty normal morning -- until American Airlines flight #77, still almost full of fuel, came in over the northern horizon and slammed into the side of the building. It was only after we had been evacuated from the building that my life began to change. After being sequestered for a few minutes near the Potomac River, it was apparent that what some of us at first thought was an emergency drill had actually been a sizable explosion on the far side of the building. Collectively we knew that the explosion called for a response. We had been called to action.

Through the leadership of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chaplain we were organized into small teams headed by the senior medical officer present. Since all of us had been trained in immediate first aid, we were eager to use our combined medical training and pastoral skills to give aid to the injured and comfort to the dying.

More here-

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_129692_ENG_HTM.htm

Episcopal priest: 10 lessons learned in the decade since 9/11

From Minnesota-

It's been 10 years since 9/11, and of the countless lessons we've learned since then, here are 10 of the most important:

1. An open society invites attack. Not only do we present an abundance of targets that we cannot possibly defend, but America's openness is offensive to the repressive, the insular, and the intolerant.

2. An open society won't be easily intimidated or vanquished. Terrorists deeply wounded New York City, but here we are, 10 years later, more alive, more confident, more open than ever. Democracy is a durable system.

3. The issue isn't Islam, but rather religious extremism in any form — Muslim, Christian or otherwise. When one group claims absolute certainty and the belief that all others are infidels or pagans who do not deserve freedom, then the inevitable next steps will be repression and destruction.

4. Common sense is the antidote to such religious extremism. Dueling faiths are not the answer, but rather an awareness that life has many struggles and no easy answers, that more people are decent than not and that things tend to work out when people are free to make choices. Mutual respect will accomplish more than victory in any sandbox.

More here-

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/otherviews/129322103.html

Washington National Cathedral set to reopen for 9/11 anniversary weekend

From ENS-

Washington National Cathedral, closed since it sustained damage following an Aug. 23 magnitude-5.8 earthquake, is set to reopen for a series of events planned for the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The building suffered further damage over the weekend from Hurricane Irene, whose high winds caused loose masonry to fall from the building and further displaced some of the pinnacles, said Joseph Alonso, the cathedral's mason foreman, during a live webcast on Aug. 29.

Several teams of architects and structural engineers have been called in to assess the damage to the building, Andrew Hullinger, the cathedral's senior director for finance and administration, said during the webcast. "The engineers tell us that they believe the cathedral building is structurally sound," he said. "The bad news is that we have sustained some serious damage to the exterior and the pinnacles [and]…some compression fracturing to the buttresses.

More here-

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80263_129586_ENG_HTM.htm

Priest treasures ground zero duty that took toll on his health

From Milwaukee-

Tom Winslow still remembers what he came to understand as a "ministry of presence."

A chaplain for the Milwaukee FBI office, he spent a week at ground zero in New York in November 2001, working out of St. Paul's Chapel, a block from the World Trade Center site. Winslow presided over a daily religious service and talked to law enforcement officers who were dealing with the unimaginable.

He learned that simply by being dressed in clerical collars or hats that identified them as chaplains, Winslow and others were able to comfort people who perhaps were reluctant to ask for help but were calmed by the presence of clergy.

One day, he took an FBI agent to a makeshift memorial that featured a large photo of John P. O'Neill, head of security for the World Trade Center. She knew O'Neill, who died in the attack.

"All I did right then was stand there and hold her as she cried," he said.

The bond among those working at ground zero was instant, and when his tour of duty ended, Winslow was reluctant to leave.

He had no idea that he likely was taking tiny pieces of ground zero home with him.

More here-

http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/128652928.html

Lower Manhattan rises again

From New York-

St. Paul's Chapel, a small Episcopal church built in 1766, survived 9/11 just across the street from the World Trade Center. Through May 2002, volunteers ministered around the clock to ground zero workers at the chapel. Now on display, the exhibit "Unwavering Spirit" includes one of many cots set up with hand-knit blankets and stuffed animals during the harrowing work. A collection of uniform patches paying tribute to volunteers from around the world still smells of smoke. Enter through the graveyard, on Church Street, between Vesey and Fulton.

Part of the same Episcopal parish, Trinity Church at the corner of Broadway and Wall Street was another nearby refuge for relief workers. A sculpture out front was made out of a giant sycamore tree destroyed on 9/11.

Read more:

http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/aug/20/lower-manhattan-rises-again/#ixzz1Vf06hR5c
- vcstar.com

Episcopal Church to mark 10th anniversary of 9/11 terrorist attacks

From ENS-

Episcopal Church and other religious leaders are planning interfaith events to mark the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks when almost 3,000 people perished after hijacked planes slammed into the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The Executive Council, at its June meeting, invited all Episcopal communities "to open the doors of their institutions" during the Sept. 10-11 weekend to commemorate the anniversary "with acts of prayer and remembrance, service, creativity, interfaith cooperation, education, community building, and fellowship, offering our institutions as active, accessible sites of healing for our local communities."

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said in an Aug. 18 statement that the anniversary is "an opportunity for reflection," adding that the Episcopal Church "continues to work for healing and reconciliation."

"The greatest memorial to those who died 10 years ago will be a world more inclined toward peace," said Jefferts Schori, who will preach at 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 11, at St. Paul's Chapel in New York, a few meters from where the World Trade Center stood, and at 11 a.m. at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine.

More here-

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79425_129496_ENG_HTM.htm

Atheists sue to block 'WTC cross' from 9/11 memorial

From USAToday-

Atheists have sued to prevent cross-shaped steel girders from the destroyed World Trade Center towers from being included in the official Sept. 11 memorial, saying the religious symbol is unconstitutional because its gives "preferential representation" to Christians who died in the 2001 terror attacks.

Workers found the broken, 17-foot-tall cross-shaped beams two days after the attacks, and they became known as the "World Trade Center cross." Saturday, the rusted cross was moved from its temporary home near St. Peter's Church and lowered into its permanent place inside the museum, which is under construction. A Catholic priest gave it a ceremonial blessing.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday on behalf of four members of American Atheists, argues that including the Roman Christian-style cross at the National September 11th Memorial and Museum violates the First and Fourteenth amendments of the U.S. Constitution, as well as the New York State Constitution.

"Many of American Atheists' members have seen the cross, either in person or on television, and are being subjected to and injured in consequence of having a religious tradition not their own imposed upon them through the power of the state," the complaint (pdf) states. If the cross is not removed, the group wants a non-religious exhibit included.

More here-

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/07/atheists-sue-to-block-wtc-cross-from-911-memorial/1

Episcopal diocese of Los Angeles spearheads interfaith 9/11 vigil

From Los Angeles-

On Saturday, Sept. 10, Los Angeles city hall will host One Light, a vigil for peace on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the devastating events of Sept. 11, 2001.

Under the leadership of Episcopal Bishop Jon Bruno, the three Abrahamic faiths have partnered with LA city council to hold the vigil at 7: 15 p.m. “People of all faiths are invited and people of no faith are invited,” says Suffragan Bishop Mary Glasspool. Saturday evening coincides with the end of the Sabbath for Muslims and Jews and the beginning of the Sabbath for Christians.

“We proactively wanted to say ‘one light, one peace, one world’ to have a visible sign of unity for peace to preempt any kind of terror or fear,” says Glasspool.

More here-

http://www.anglicanjournal.com/nc/news-update-items/article/episcopal-diocese-of-los-angeles-spearheads-interfaith-911-vigil-9899.html

The religious leaders, who include Rabbi Mark Diamond and Imam Shaquile Sahid, intentionally picked a secular venue so that no one religious group would appear to be favoured. Some 5,000 people are expected, and 500 symbolic glass light globes will be given out.

“The idea is for a representative from each house of worship—whether it’s a church, a synagogue, a mosque, an ashram or a temple—to take a globe back to their home house of worship,” says Glasspool. “It will be a huge celebration.”

News of terrorist's death stuns priest, ride organizer

From Central PA-

"It was a long time coming," said Father John Manno, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Montoursville.

Manno got an up close and personal view of Osama bin Laden's handiwork in February 2002, when he served with clergy supporting recovery efforts at ground zero. Manno worked at St. Paul's Chapel, an Episcopal church within yards of Tower Two.

Manno worked eight-hour shifts, offering assistance to firefighters and other workers sifting through the rubble of the Twin Towers. The local priest said he wanted to help at the site because he did his graduate work at Covenant House in New York City.

"It was something I wanted to do because New York was very close to my heart," Manno said.

On the day of the terrorist attacks, Manno was recovering from surgery and using a walker to get around. However, he later was able to go to the site through the efforts of Lycoming County Prison Chaplain and former Trinity Episcopal Church Rector Andy France Jr.

Manno said when he arrived at the site and saw the devastation, it showed him "the effect of human genius when it is coupled with evil."

More here-

http://www.sungazette.com/page/content.detail/id/563487/News-of-terrorist-s-death-stuns-priest--ride-organizer.html?nav=5011

'Move beyond fear': Planned Quran burning is religious stupidity

From ELO- How can anyone think that an act of hate and religious fanaticism -- the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 -- can somehow be redeemed by an act of intolerance and religious stupidity?

I have been trying to decide whether Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove Center in Gainesville, who is planning to burn copies of the Quran on Sept. 11, has any idea of how much harm and persecution his action will bring upon Christians living around the world -- and specifically those living in countries with a majority Muslim population.

I have traveled extensively in the Middle East, and I am quite familiar with the precarious situation of Christians in that area. I can only appeal to him to desist from an action that will hurt his Christian brothers and sisters around the world; they are the ones who will suffer the consequences of his fanatical act. As an American, I also appeal to his patriotism and concern for our U.S. troops.

General David Petraeus, our commander in Afghanistan, has warned that this planned act of disrespect and destruction of the Muslim scriptures will both endanger our troops already in perilous situations and harm our relationship with those Muslim countries that are our sincere allies. Every page of the Quran that burns will recruit to the ranks of Islamic extremists hundreds of irate Muslims, who will see in this action a confirmation of claims by Al Qaeda and the Taliban that Americans are engaged in our own jihad against the followers of Islam.

More here-

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_124380_ENG_HTM.htm

Chaplain blames 9/11 for lung problems

From Wisconsin (by way of Omaha)-

When the call came, the Rev. Tom Winslow did not hesitate.
Terrorists had destroyed the World Trade Center, and rescue workers needed the spiritual support of clergy.

So for one week in November of 2001, Winslow, an Episcopal priest and the chaplain for the Wisconsin FBI, ministered to rescue workers in an area of ground zero dubbed "the pit."
Winslow was one of many clergy attached to federal agencies who rotated through ground zero. He remembers praying over a rib cage, the only body part left of one victim.

Now, eight years later, Winslow thinks the toxic air he breathed that week led to a life-threatening health crisis. He received a lung transplant at UW Hospital three weeks ago and was back Monday for his first clinic visit.
"There are a lot of people out there who are still victims of 9/11, and they are going to be showing up in a wave at hospitals in the years ahead," said Winslow, 65, of Pewaukee.

At ground zero, he wore an air-purifying canister respirator at all times around his neck, he said. However, he breathed through it only when he traveled below ground, the common practice of those at the site, he said.

A 2009 report by the World Trade Center Medical Working Group says thousands of exposed people continue to suffer from chronic mental and physical health conditions but that a relationship between exposure and more serious illnesses such as cancer is unknown.

Winslow said he had no lung problems until after his work at ground zero, then suffered an asthma-like attack within a week or so. Serious sinus and bronchial problems developed, leading to pneumonia, gastric reflux disease, and, ultimately, lung failure.

More here-

http://www.omaha.com/article/20091226/LIVING01/912239957