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United Methodist Bishop Visits 'Ground Zero'United Methodist Bishop Ernest Lyght of the New York Conference visited "ground zero" on Sept. 15, ministering to firefighters and other volunteers searching for victims of the World Trade Center tragedy.
Lyght was accompanied by his assistant, the Rev. Nat Grady, and the pastor and associate pastor of Park Avenue United Methodist Church, the Rev. William Shillady and the Rev. Bryan Hooper.
"My ministry is a ministry of presence," the bishop told United Methodist News Service about his decision to venture into that area.
The group had started its journey at Bellevue Hospital, where an outside wall is plastered with photographs of the missing. Then the group moved on to Metropolitan Duane United Methodist Church, next to St. Vincent's Medical Center, which has served as a place of prayer for workers. Eventually, the United Methodists found themselves near the ruins of 4 World Trade Center, still smoldering, and led a group of eight firefighters in prayer.
"Some of these people obviously have been there from the beginning, and you can see it in their faces," Lyght noted.
Danger was present, too, as the group found when it joined a crowd of workers running while an alarm warned of a possible building collapse.
The bishop found John Street United Methodist Church, a historic building near the World Trade Center, to be covered with soot but otherwise intact. "We had prayer on the steps of John Street for the presence of Methodist ministry in this city and for all the people who had been touched by this tragedy," he said.
New York Conference officials are working with the United Methodist Committee on Relief on the denomination's response to the tragedy. One option, Lyght said, would be to use John Street and Metropolitan Duane churches as bases for roving trauma teams.
September 17, 2001
UMCOR 9/11 Update September 2004: UMCOR's response to the aftermath of September 11 continues. We thank are thankful for all of contributions that United Methodists and others have so generously given.
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Source: United Methodist News Service. Bloom is director of the New York office of United Methodist News Service. More stories about this tragedy are on the UMNS news site.
Photo: Bishop Ernest Lyght of the New York Annual Conference (right) with Pastor Giovanni Arroyo, El Camino UMC, Norwalk, CT in the "ground zero" area. Credit: Nat Grady, New York Annual Conference. Used by permission of Nat Grady.
