Covenant News

Pastor Recalls Tragic Images of September 11

NEW YORK, NY (September 11, 2003) - The frightening and tragic images of September 11, 2001, will be remembered for a long time by people around the world. Those images likely are more deeply etched into the memories of those living near New York City, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania, primary targets of terrorist activities.

It was Election Day in New York City, recalls Jerry Mosby, pastor at Fellowship Covenant Church in the Bronx. His church served as a voting precinct that day, though the election – and virtually every other activity of life in the Big Apple – seems irrelevant by comparison.

"It's making everyone aware that life is sacred," said Mosby, who has been pastor of his church for more than two decades. "People are realizing it'll never go away from our hearts and our minds. And I read in the news that there are still 1,000 people that are unaccounted for."

A number of larger churches in New York City commemorated 9/11 on Wednesday with additional remembrances planned for today. An ecumenical service was held at Lehman College in the Bronx to draw neighborhoods together. A local radio station sponsored a musical celebration, "Songs of Remembrance," last night at Madison Square Garden. On Monday, a firefighter was symbolically remembered in a funeral service attended by 2,000 people, including many individuals representing fire department units from all around the world. During the service, family members buried one vile of blood that one ill-fated firefighter had donated to a bone marrow clinic just prior to the attacks.

Fellowship Covenant used its regular Wednesday night prayer service to especially remember those who lost loved ones on September 11. A woman from Mosby's church led the group in prayer and shared her experience that fateful day. She normally worked at the World Trade Center, but on that particular day had traveled to New Jersey for a meeting. As she was returning to the city on the Staten Island Ferry, she saw the towers falling and realized that she - by the grace of God - had been spared.

"It's changed her life completely," said Mosby. "She's never missed a Sunday since the World Trade Center (event). She realizes it could've been her and while she has struggled with it, she's doing wonderfully well."

Mosby and other New York City pastors were busy that day. Mosby was concerned about parishioners from his church who worked near the World Trade Center - one parishioner watched with horror from her office across the street as people jumped from the burning World Trade Center buildings. Mosby, who serves as the 43rd precinct chaplain, talked to police officers and numerous others who were affected either directly or indirectly by what occurred.

"Two years ago it was a shock," said Mosby in recalling images of people leaping out of the World Trade Center and the collapse of the buildings. "Now, it's more a horrible site (to think about) because people realized how desperate people must've been to jump out of the building rather than being burned. Even the traffic in Lower Manhattan is different. Nobody tells them to stop, but everybody seems to stop and remember that what once stood is no longer there," Mosby said. "We would've never dreamed that this sort of thing would ever happen on American soil."

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