Churches take a breather on special Sept. 11 services
By Annette Bender
For two Septembers in a row, area police officers and firefighters ran themselves ragged, accepting invitations to the many church events memorializing Sept. 11, 2001.
Two years after terrorist acts that killed thousands in New York City and Washington, D.C, Holston Conference congregations seem to be offering few events or services related to Sept. 11. Phone calls to all 12 district offices uncovered two Holston churches out of 925 that are planning special activities.
In Knoxville District, Church Street United Methodist Church will have a memorial Labyrinth Walk of Prayer, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 11. The labyrinth will be held "in the chapel in the memory of those who perished on the 11th and in the war," said Barbara Carr, who chairs the church's Labyrinth Guild with her husband, David Carr. (Church Street’s labyrinth was featured in a recent Knoxville News-Sentinel article.
In Cleveland District, Benton United Methodist Church is holding a “Service of Remembrance, Prayer and Hope” on Wednesday, Sept. 10, at 7 p.m. According to the Rev. Matt Merker, the congregation will “reflect and share about what has happened since Sept. 11 and focus on our hope in Christ.”
Some church members pointed out that Sept. 11 is still important in the minds of United Methodists, even if annual services or activities are not planned. (“We might do something again on the fifth or 10th anniversary,” said one Kingsport church member.) Others expressed concern that the public is forgetting the significance of the 2001 tragedy.
Lee Fish, a member at Mafair United Methodist Church in Kingsport District, is founder and chair of a community event that will be held at 7 p.m., Sept. 11, at Tri-Cities Regional Airport in Blountville, Tenn. About 1,500 are expected to attend a program including a keynote address by General Gordon R. Sullivan. (For more information, go to www.remembersept11th.com.)
The program honors “the public servants who gave the ultimate sacrifice to our country,” according to Fish. She is the daughter of a retired Kentucky state police officer.
“If you have a father or mother in that line of work, you don’t know if they’re going to come home again,” said Fish. “We don’t want people to forget that they’re free – that they’re able to go to church, to pray, to hug their kids – because of what other people have done for them. It’s like the whole country has gone to sleep … Sept. 11 should be a national holiday, in my book.”
“People underestimate the depth of the wound. It’s still there,” said Benton UMC’s Merker. “I don’t think we have to keep talking about the World Trade Center, or the Pentagon, or the flights, but we do have to keep talking about the changes we’ve experienced in a country where terror has become an issue. I don’t think we think about that.”
Special events might not be necessary to keep the consequences of Sept. 11 alive in the minds of Americans, says the Rev. Ron Matthews, Maryville District superintendent and former U.S. Army chaplain. But it’s important to recognize that people are still being affected by the tragedy.
“My only opinion is that as a society we have a very short attention span,” Matthews said. “One of the great concerns – whether you agree with [President] Bush or not – is that we’ve still got soldiers, men and women, in harm’s way. And it all goes back to Sept. 11. That was the drive and impulse that put them there. We shouldn’t forget what happened and divorce ourselves from the world.”
For comments about this article or articles in other Holston Conference publications, write Annette Bender.
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