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Moderator calls for prayers on 9/11 |
| Moderator urges prayer in memory
of 9/11
by Evan Silverstein, Presbyterian News Service
[9-22-02]
LOUISVILLE -- August 21, 2002 -- The Rev. Fahed Abu-Akel,
moderator of the 214th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church
(USA), has called on Presbyterians to mark the anniversary of the Sept.
11 terrorist attacks with prayer and reaching out to others.
In a letter to the denomination, Abu-Akel wrote:
"I want to encourage all of us in the Presbyterian Church (USA) to
be among those who will be marking the occasion. It is important that we
come together in prayer and community, especially when our sighs are too
deep for words."
Abu-Akel, a Palestinian-American pastor from Atlanta,
asked Presbyterians to open their churches to those seeking "a
haven and a place to pray," and to consider joining with their
neighbors, including Jews and Muslims, in interfaith services.
The full text of the letter:
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Almost one year later, it is still hard to take in
the events of September 11, 2001 -- a day that is painfully remembered
by all of us. The attacks on the World Trade towers and the Pentagon,
and the crash in Pennsylvania, sent a tremendous shock around the
world. Many believe that our country and the world will never be the
same.
Plans are being made in many towns and cities to
remember September 11th in various ways. I want to encourage all of us
in the Presbyterian Church (USA) to be among those who will be marking
the occasion. It is important that we come together in prayer and
community, especially when our sighs are too deep for words.
Open the doors of your church building for those in
the community who are seeking a haven and a place to pray. Perhaps you
would like to seek out your neighbors who are Muslim or Jewish and
invite them to join you in an interfaith service. On our
denomination's Web site, www.pcusa.org/september11, an outline for an
interfaith service and other helpful resources can be found. Please
consider doing some or all of the following on September 11th, as you
are able: Observe a day of prayer and fasting. In your prayers,
remember the victims of the attacks and their relatives; our nation
and its leaders, especially President Bush and members of Congress;
and the peoples of the world. Pray that swords will indeed become
plowshares and that justice will roll down like an ever-flowing
stream.
In his letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul wrote,
"Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not
know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with
sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what
is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the
saints according to the will of God" (Rom. 8:26-27). Know that I
continue to pray for you, for our church, for our nation, and for the
world.
Peace/Salaam,
The Rev. Dr. Fahed Abu-Akel
Moderator, 214th General Assembly (2002)
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