14 Sep Thousands at Interfaith Service Vow Unity in Moving Forward
Amid the prayers, the rain and the hymns at the Cape Henlopen Region observance of 9/11 Sunday afternoon, nature sent a blessing.
A multi-colored rainbow appeared over the ocean as several hundred people gathered at the Rehoboth Beach Bandstand and were just beginning the second verse of Samuel Anthony Wright’s hymn: “We Would Be One.”
Within minutes, the rain stopped, the sun came out and as the Rev. Max Wolf, rector of All Saint’s Church and St. Georges Chapel, suggested, there was hope.
“It’s not downhill from here,” he said.
The interfaith gathering included religious leaders from Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Hindi communities in the coastal region and was organized by the Progressive Interfaith Alliance.
Hundreds of people came out for the memorial service .
“Today the bells have tolled again,” said the Rev. David Risseeuw, associate chaplain to Beebe Medical Center. “Today we remember the lives cut short and the acts of extraordinary courage.”
State Sen. Gary Simpson, R-Milford, reminded the crowd that with God’s help, grief was turned into determination and it inspired the best in people.
“We are resolved to do what is good and right and just,” he prayed.
Beth Cohen with the Seaside Jewish Community talked about grief and mourning and led the crowd in the Mourner’s Kaddish.
There were prayers in Sanskrit, a message of peace and unity from Dr. Aasim Sehbai, of the local Muslim community and a reminder that “peace prevails over hatred and revenge.”
And they closed with the following: “We search again not only for the meaning of life but the purpose of our individual and collective experience … and we look earnestly for ways in which we might re-create ourselves anew as a human species so that we will never treat each other this way again.”
(The News Journal)
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