Once again I am back in NYC and once again I took off downtown. I wandered into Saint Paul's Chapel where there was a high school choir singing. The acoustics are lovely and the song they started, a spiritual, seemed appropriate background for a little walking tour of Saint Paul's. Mind you, this little video is neither high fidelity or high resolution; it is done with a 5 megapixel camera but you can get the gist.
It starts out at a bank of votives (one of which I had just lit), moves to one of the cots on which people working on the pile (the ruins of the World Trade Center) would nap, then looks at the chancel of the church and the choir; it shows a helmet, you can sort of make out a banner up above on the balcony that came from Oklahoma, and one of the remaining pews where people would sleep (I saw all this in December 2001). Then I wander around the back of the church stopping at a site where one can look up names, and then end up at a chasuble that is utterly covered with patches from units all over the place. There is a small photo of a priest wearing the chasuble. And there is someone's identity badge for gaining access to the pile (I believe).
The church still looks so naked to me six almost seven years later without all the postings from people all around the world. There were banners on every square inch of that building. And the pews were filled with notes and blankets, pillows and even teddy bears. The other big difference is that when I first saw it in 2001, it was utterly silent so that people could sleep. To see it now as a chapel/museum with all the activity is good but also so different.
candles
Light one in your heart.... click on the photo to see a short video of burning velas.
caminante sign
IAES symbol
“The Windsor report. It’s just a report. When did it become like the Bible? The Covenant. Why do we need another Covenant? We have the Baptismal Covenant. We have the Creeds. What else do we need?” Bishop Martín Barahona, former Primate of la Iglesia de la Región de Central América and Bishop of the Iglesia Anglicana Episcopal de El Salvador
About Me
- Caminante
- I am a life-long Episcopalian, who has been ordained since 1993. I was rector of a family-size congregation from 1994-2008 and and ended three years as priest in partnership at a pastoral-size congregation in Vermont's fourth-largest city (Rutland) in 2011. Now I am vicar of a tiny congregation in the Green Mountains of Vermont. I am involved in church governance at the diocesan, church-wide and international Anglican levels. I was a member of a CREDO faculty team working with the clergy and lay leaders of l'Eglise Episcopale d'Haiti. I also try to go to El Salvador a few times a year and am officially Canon Missioner of the Anglican Episcopal Church of El Salvador (since 2004). In 2007, I finished the 1570 km Chemin de Saint Jacques/Camino de Santiago de Compostela. I greatly enjoy hiking in the Vermont Greens and NH Whites and reflect on those hikes. In 2010 I also completed walking the 273 mile-long Long Trail in the Green Mountains of Vermont... maybe next the Appalachian Trail? Lastly but most important, I am a cat-fanatic. (N.B. Whatever I post here does not reflect either the opinions of my congregation or of The Episcopal Church but merely those of an individual.)
Inspiration Pilgrimage
Photos and description of the Camino de Santiago/Chemin de Saint Jaques
la prêtre branchée
You said what???
Cats for Obama
Mooooo
One campaign
MDGs
Sisyphus
Life in Vermont
Free Zone
¡Gracias!, Padre Mickey
2 comments:
I have been to Ground Zero two times since 9/11... which, when you consider I was in NYC when it happened and ended up working blocks away a couple of years later, is... Well it is what it is.
The first time I went, I couldn't take it and fled to St Paul's. The second time I felt numb and devoid of any feeling. I went to St Paul's so I could find something.
Both times meant being able to breathe.
Yes... the breathing part... though I think of my dear friend who was at Trinity Wall Street the morning of 9/11 in the television studios along with Rowan Williams et al when the planes hit. She decided if she was going to die, she'd rather do so outside in the streets than in a windowless room. She breathed all that particulate material as she fled down to Battery Park and then she ended up shepherding an unknown woman and her little child up to the 50s somewhere. She then managed to take the last train out of the city back north.
My first time there was in December 2001. I guess my emotional ties are strong because I used to work for the Seamen's Church Institute and therefore knew some of the people who worked at Saint Paul's.
I used to wander through the WTC plaza en route from the PATH station to SCI on Water Street and stop and gaze upward at the towers, almost falling over backwards as I looked up.....
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