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VOL. 13, NO. 17

Bishop Felton Edwin May will preach at a service of remembrance Sept. 11 at 7:30 p.m. at Metropolitan Memorial UMC in Washington, D.C.

Everyone is invited to this service at the nations church at 3401 Nebraska Ave., NW. For more information call (202) 363-4900.

Many other United Methodist congregations will also be observing the anniversary of the terrorist attacks. For a listing, check the e-connection, the electronic newsletter of the Baltimore-Washington Conference.

Normal not the same since Sept. 11

BY MELISSA LAUBER UMCONNECTION STAFF

The events of Sept. 11, 2001, created a crease in our psyche. People think about religion, politics and their daily lives differently in the post-Sept. 11 world.

When terrorists crashed jet airliners into the World Trade Center towers in New York and the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C., and in Pennsylvania, on that Tuesday morning a year ago, many people wondered if their lives could ever be the same.

Things are returning to normal, but normal now is not the same as normal a year ago, said the Rev. Dennis Yocum, a chaplain from Mt. Airy who serves with the 167th Air Wing of the West Virginia Air National Guard. There are new realities present in the world.

For the Cooper family of Hughes Memorial UMC in Washington, D.C., that new reality is Julianah Marie, a daughter born six months after her father Julian was killed at the Pentagon.

Four-year-old Stephan Young also lost his father, Edmond Young Jr., when American Airlines Flight 77, en route from Dulles Airport to Los Angeles with 64 people onboard, crashed into the Pentagon.

In Sunday School hes taught about God, Jesus and heaven, said Margaret Young, Stephans grandmother. But at times he just really wants his dad.

Since that day, Margaret Young has been able to speak to people who were with her son moments before the attack. When the plane hit, it must have been like closing his eyes and waking up in heaven, she said.

Young claims the family is getting by. But were not good. Sept. 11th never really left us, she said. Theres always something to cope with. Theres never been a healing moment. But by the grace of God were getting through it.

She doesnt know how she would have lived through the past year without her faith. This is a cross for us to bear, she said. But when you know God, you got something to hold onto.

Debbie Anderson, of Reisterstown UMC, finds it difficult to put into words the turmoil of emotions she feels when she thinks of her sister who died at the World Trade Center Sept. 11.

I can still hear her voice, Anderson said. I dwell on her children and pray for them. She had four-year-old twin girls. Anderson worries that theyll miss their mothers love. Post-Sept. 11, she also often finds herself startled about how vulnerable people are.

I dont know if Im different now, she said. But Im aware of how fragile life is. Anything can happen.

Andy Moffitt, a 19-year-old firefighter from Lanham UMC who spent six hours fighting the blaze at the Pentagon, intentionally does not dwell on Sept. 11. He can still feel the intense heat from the burning jet fuel. I remember the sensations, he said.

But it made me understand you have to get over things. You cant dwell on something like that or it will ruin your life, he said.

Moffitt also believes the events of Sept. 11 have made him realize how connected the United States is to the rest of the world. He reacts differently to the news when he hears reports about things like the bombings in Israel.

It all makes me wonder, he said. I keep asking the simple questions, like why did it happen. So far hes not found any definitive answers.

However, according to Yocum, who worked with the military community from the Pentagon in the weeks following the bombing, the questions are not bad.

Events like those of Sept. 11 throw us back to the eternal questions: Who are we, why are we here? We realize our own smallness and that God is in control of the universe still, and we are not, he said. We seek out the grace, power and authority of God, who is still in control. It pushes us to faith.

The gaping hole in the Pentagon has been repaired. This signals a new day, said Yocum, who prays that God will make everyone, particularly those with whom he serves in the military, instruments of peace.

When we are being preservers, protectors and creators of peace, he said, we are doing Gods will.