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NewsSeptember 29, 2001

From staff and wire service reports The Rev. Stephen McConnell thought the task facing him in the early hours of Sept. 11 would be the grimmest of his day. A car accident had killed a father of four, and the Basking Ridge, N.J., minister had to tell the widow...

From staff and wire service reports

The Rev. Stephen McConnell thought the task facing him in the early hours of Sept. 11 would be the grimmest of his day.

A car accident had killed a father of four, and the Basking Ridge, N.J., minister had to tell the widow.

Within hours, three more fathers from McConnell's community would be gone, lost in the New York terrorist attacks, turning the minister's Liberty Corner Presbyterian Church into a vessel for the town's grief.

"The church has been open 16 to 18 hours a day. I've been working an average of 14 hours a day," McConnell said.

The terrorist strikes have created enormous demands on ministers, priests and rabbis, called on to comfort mourners, counsel rescue workers and guide Americans wondering where God was that Tuesday morning.

Many Manhattan churches remained open around the clock for days after the tragedy. Clergy walking through the city say they've been deluged with requests for prayer. One minister said a stranger came up and hugged him.

Memorial services and funerals have been held daily, sometimes more than one a day. People with little or no previous interest in organized religion have been packing houses of worship.

"It's unrelenting," said Bishop Stephen Bouman of the Metropolitan New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. "Just when you think you're going to get a chance to take a deep breath you get another story that breaks your heart."

Local churches respond

Even in Cape Girardeau, churches opened their doors for prayer services and meditation in the days following the attacks; many still remain open during the day. A community memorial service at the Show Me Center helped shoulder some of the burden as people asked questions about faith and God's presence amid evil.

Many area pastors are seeing an increase in Sunday worship attendance and sermons are reflecting the uncertain state of the world.

The Rev. Clayton Smith, pastor of Centenary United Methodist Church, has been changing his sermons to address questions of why and where was God?

The Rev. Sam Ramdial, pastor of First General Baptist Church, has been preaching from the Psalms. His sermons have been about where to look when trouble arrives and what to do when it overwhelms you. "We are trying to give leadership in this crisis," Ramdial said.

In the hours after the destruction, Bouman's voicemail filled with requests for support from pastors who had to tell children their parents had been killed. People who saw others jump from the burning twin towers have sought Bouman's counsel.

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Bouman said once you show up with your collar, people share their innermost pain. "I really pray for the strength to be able to offer myself as a safe place to people," he said.

Many people who haven't attended church before or where inactive members have been returning, said Smith. "There is a recognition that living life as status quo won't provide the community support you need. Local churches provide that support."

The bishop has been helping coordinate Lutheran relief efforts, while also leading services. At one Manhattan church, 250 people showed up for midday worship instead of the usual 15, Bouman said.

For rabbis, the destruction came six days before their most important and busiest time of year, the Jewish High Holy Days. Attendance at synagogues skyrocketed.

In a Gallup poll conducted Sept. 21-22, 47 percent of respondents said they attended church or synagogue in the last seven days, a level rarely seen since the 1950s.

For a large number of clergy in New York, the stress is compounded by personal loss. Many witnessed the towers crumbling and knew people inside.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York lost the Rev. Mychal Judge, the fire department chaplain killed when the trade center collapsed.

Bouman didn't learn until the early evening of Sept. 11 that his daughter who works in the Wall Street area survived.

The Rev. Samuel Johnson Howard, vicar of the Episcopal Trinity Church Wall Street, about 300 yards from the twin towers, was with his wife and congregants inside the church when the trade center crumbled.

In a strange pilgrimage through the clouds of ash outside, Howard ministered to police and firefighters, many of whom were Roman Catholic.

"To the first half dozen, I said, 'You understand I'm an Episcopal priest,' and they would say, 'Father, I don't care,"' Howard recalled. "I stopped saying it. I knew in the midst of that tragedy and the terror all around us, all the folks in the street wanted was someone to reassure them that God was with them."

Since then, Howard has been running his church and its many ministries by cell phone, and is helping feed the rescue workers. The collapse forced him and his wife out of their apartment in lower Manhattan and they have been living in a hotel. Their church is intact, but in an area authorities have closed off.

Many clergy are seeking psychological and spiritual counseling to handle the strain.

"It's stress," Bouman said. "But it's what we were born to do."

Features editor Laura Johnston contributed to this report.

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