During the Sept. 11 anniversary observance at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston,
members of the congregation lit candles in remembrance of those who have died. There was music by the MagnificatBoston choir, directed by Mark Engelhardt, and cellist Kim Hardy, prayers in English and Arabic and meditations on hope and fear given by Tufts chaplain Naila Baloch and Bishop M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE.
The text of Bishop Shaw's invitation to prayer on Sept. 11 follows.
My Sisters and Brothers,
I remember where I was on Sept. 11, 2001: in a market in central Turkey. A man grabbed my arm and told me in very broken English that I must come with him. He took me to a television store where dozens of television sets were showing the destruction in New York and shots of Logan Airport. When I turned around, the man was gone, and no one in the shop spoke English. As you can imagine, I was frantic. It wasn't until late that evening that I could piece together what had happened in my country. I prayed, wept and desperately tried to get in touch with our diocese and with my brothers. Five days later I made it home.
Where were you on that Sept. 11? What were you doing and thinking and feeling? Have you, over these last 10 years, found the hope of the resurrection that Christ's victory promises us, even in an event as devastating as this one? Come on Sunday evening, Sept. 11 to our Cathedral Church of St. Paul, where we will have an opportunity, together with some of our Muslim sisters and brothers, to remember and reflect, to honor those who died, to seek healing and be renewed in hope through a liturgy of meditation, music and prayer.
Wherever you will be on this Sept. 11, please join your prayers with mine for God's compassion on the whole human family.
Faithfully yours,
The Rt. Rev. M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE