Gripped by terror, Presbyterians in New
York and Washington grapple with response
by Alexa Smith and Jerry Van Marter, Presbyterian News
Service
LOUISVILLE - 11-September-2001 - "It's been a
tough day," the Rev. Craig Barnes, pastor of National Presbyterian
Church in Washington, D.C., said just after noon yesterday. "We're
still trying to find all our members who might have been in New York or
who work at the Pentagon."
Barnes said one of those still missing was the church
treasurer, "who works in the part of the Pentagon that took a
direct hit." He said his congregation also includes "a number
of other high-ranking officials who work at the Pentagon."
He said the church staff initially was "mostly
working with the spouses" of the people who were missing and feared
hurt or killed.
Barnes said he had already held a prayer meeting and
scheduled prayer vigils for Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, and
"the music director and I have completely retooled our Sunday
worship service; it's the first time I've ever done that."
"We're trying to make sense of this thing,"
Barnes said. "It feels like when a pastor runs into the emergency
room when a member of the church is in desperate shape. ... We've been
rushing to each other, holding each other, reading certain passages of
Scripture, praying for a sense of calm, trying to calm down all the
parents who are rushing in (to a church-run day-care center) and taking
their kids away. ... Just crisis-mode stuff."
He added: "Please pray for us."
After the kamikaze-style attack on the World Trade
Center towers in New York City, the Rev. Walter B. Tennyson immediately
sat down at his computer to put together a Service of Grief and
Lamentation at Broadway Presbyterian Church, which sits on the Upper
West Side at the opposite end of Manhattan from the World Trade Center.
By 1 p.m., a service was underway, rich in psalms and
in silence. Opening with Psalm 46: "God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the
earth should change, through the mountains shake in the heart of the sea
..." It closed with a text from Revelation that proclaims a day
when "Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be
no more," a day when there will be "no more night … for the
Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and
ever."
With plenty of noise in the background, Tennyson said,
"We're preparing the church for folks to use as an overnight
shelter for anybody who is trapped in the city and we're planning on
feeding more homeless people than usual tonight. This is also going to
be a blood donation center."
Tennyson said that he'd surveyed parishioners who work
in the World Trade Center or nearby and everyone was safe. An elder who
works on the 16th floor of the center was sick today with pneumonia and
did not go to work; he'd also learned that his colleagues were safe.
Elenora Giddings Ivory, director of the PC(USA)'s Washington Office, is
back home now, wondering whether to pick up her grandchildren at school.
Their father is one of thousands who is stuck on the Metro, the District
of Columbia's subway system that is clogged with workers evacuating the
city.
Ivory was just beginning the Washington Office's
weekly Tuesday briefing when the building shuddered, reverberating from
the explosion caused when a suicide hijacker crashed a commercial
airliner into the nearby Pentagon, collapsing one side of the five-sided
building.
Ivory had returned Monday from Durban, South Africa,
where she was one of 19 Presbyterians attending the United Nations'
Conference on Racism. She was trying to figure out how to interpret the
U.S. delegation's walkout, along with the Israelis, and the angry
reaction to it by other delegations and groups around the world.
"Washington is very somber right now," she
said, adding that the PC(USA)'s Washington staff evacuated their offices
right across from the Supreme Court when Capitol Hill employees began
leaving. "It took me two hours to get home driving," said
Ivory, who lives just 13 blocks from her 100 Maryland Avenue office.
Across town, the Rev. Alice Anderson, pastor of the
New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, hasn't left her house. She was
working on the church bulletin when the attacks in Washington and New
York occurred and concurred with her staff that programs at the church
should be called off and folks sent home.
That meant that alternate arrangement had to be
quickly made for the mentally ill adults in the church's day treatment
center.
"It is too soon for us to really be able to tell
[who has been affected within the congregation, Anderson said, noting
that many parishioners of New York Avenue work at both the Pentagon and
the State Department. "It is very difficult to reach anybody right
now," she said, because the city's phone lines are too jammed to
reach folks.
"One-third to one-half of our people are federal
employees. This will have a profound affect on us. I just don't know yet
how to respond," said Anderson.
Just hours after the blast, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian
Church in New York threw open its doors to folks who wanted to come in
off the street and talk with someone or pray. Deacons and elders stayed
in the chapel to sit with New Yorkers who are stunned by the tragedy or
worried about the safety of a loved one.
Organized prayer services were under way by early
afternoon.
A prayer service was also held today at the offices of
the Jarvie Commonweal Service, a PC(USA)-sponsored outreach ministry to
elderly residents of New York City. "We are grateful that the
Jarvie staff are all fine and our offices are not affected
directly," said Jarvie staffer Mary Dugan. One staff member's
elderly husband departed lower Manhattan for an appointment in Brooklyn
just about the time of the World Trade Center destruction. He was safe.
Jarvie staff called beneficiaries throughout the day
to reassure them.
Anxiety in the offices of National Capital Presbytery
eased when executive presbyter Teri Thomas was reported safe in Ireland.
She had been in Jordan with a group of ministers and laypeople from the
presbytery, but will now be stuck until commercial air traffic resumes.
"As you can imagine, the roads are clogged with
people, as the government has shut down. All of us here at the office
are just sitting tight and praying ... There's just no sense trying to
get home right now," said National Capital stated clerk Richard
McFail.
He said Western Presbyterian Church near the State
Department has been turned into an emergency day care center for the
children of State Department employees. Officials there opted to move
the kids to safer quarters, when rumors circulated that the State
Department had been targeted by the terrorists.
The Rev. John Wimberly, pastor of the Western church,
said the coming days will be both a spiritual and pastoral challenge for
folks in the District of Columbia. "So many people that go to our
churches work for the federal government. And suddenly, their workplace
is a target. What's the psychological impact of that? The spiritual
issue is that, as Christians, we're supposed to live hopeful, rather
than fearful lives … but this produces a climate of fear.
"And this is going to be a big issue that
congregations and pastors will have to deal with in the days
ahead."
Although the numbers of dead in Manhattan are not yet
known, officials fear high casualty counts from the collapse of the twin
buildings that towered over the city's impressive skyline. About 50,000
people work in the buildings normally.
"Outside, ironically enough, it is a beautiful
day, gorgeous. Just a nice day to be out walking around," said Greg
Cootsana, an associate at the Fifth Avenue church, who added that the
streets, however, are swamped for a different reason: Buses, trains and
the subway are shutdown, so workers who've been put out of unsafe area
can't get out of the city.
"Almost everybody is stunned. It is like a movie,
surreal," said Cootsana, who said that one member who works at the
World Trade Center was late for work this morning and is safe, but her
colleagues were not so lucky. "It's an odd feeling to think that
the people you work with may be in the rubble," he said.
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission personnel will be
staying close to home tonight and in the coming days, according to the
denomination's security policies. "In times of crisis, we ask them
to stay close to home and to stay in touch with knowledgeable
partners," said Will Browne of the Worldwide Ministries, who said
it is wise for U.S. citizens abroad to be especially sensitive to
anti-American sentiments at moments like this.
"At this point, we're not unduly concerned with
mission personnel," he said.
General Assembly Council deputy executive director
Kathy Lueckert said she had heard from several traveling national staff
members, who were all reported safe.
Worldwide Ministries Division coordinator for the
Middle East Victor Makari was okay in Egypt. Mission Support Services
official Nagy Tawfik is safe in Armenia. WMD Caribbean coordinator Julia
Ann Moffett and international health ministries director Dorothy
Brewster-Lee were due to return home from Haiti today but their
departure will undoubtedly be delayed. Self Development of People
coordinator Fredric Walls and Southern Africa coordinator Jon Chapman
were en route to Angola when the attacks occurred and they were both
reported safe.
Lueckert said no national or presbytery-sponsored
study tours are abroad at this time.
