15 year remembrance - 9/11/01

Over the next few days I will be posting some of my writings immediately following 9/11/01, posted to a Lutheran discussion group. They are corrected for spelling and with a few other indicated edits. The originals are still online at the referenced links.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/
ELCA-L/message/8634

From: PBellanboy@aol.com
Date: Tue Sep 11, 2001 1:56 pm
Reply To: ELCA-L@yahoogroups.com
Subject: A word from NYC

To those on the list who know us and may be wondering, both Lisa and I are safe and OK. But many of my former colleagues, friends, and acquaintances who work and live in the WTC area have undoubtedly been affected. Please pray for those at risk, and for the courage and strength of those who labor to help.

"We walk by faith and not by sight," for the sights today are horrific. In the days to come, as we trace the chains of cruelty and indifference which led to this horror, let us also be attentive to the evidence of love. Those who have put themselves at risk to rescue and care for the injured. And those who will engage in the hard ministries of repentance and forgiveness.

Please pray for our nation, that we not respond with a spirit of vengeance.

I am going out now to give blood and will then try to make my way to NYU for campus ministry.

God's grace is our lifeline, and God's peace our hope.

Paul Bellan-Boyer


Photo:
Milton Heiberg, "WTC with Gulls," miltonheiberg.com, used by permission. Thank you, Mr. Heiberg!

Artwork:
Todd Stone, "Lifting," on display at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. Todd Stone took a picture of pigeons lifting into the sky seconds after AA Flight 11 flew into the North Tower, and continued to photograph from his rooftop near the WTC. "Within a few days, unable to rid his mind and spirit of the horrific images he had witnessed, Stone began a new series of paintings. He rubbed World Trade Center Ash into his watercolor paper, turning it from brilliant white to dull gray." This is one of 16 paintings in his series, Witness.

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