9/11 sermons: From pulpit, a spirit of forgiveness. A brief overview of the message from the pulpit and politicians that will be broadcast worldwide today. September 11, 2011, ten years on.
Unity, forgiveness and understanding.
Those are some of the themes that local religious leaders will touch on when they deliver their sermons today, the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Clergy members acknowledged that writing their weekly addresses required extra care because so many moral, ideological and religious questions are bound up in the subject of 9/11.
"Forgiveness between individuals is one thing. But when it comes to politics and international relations, it's sometimes more difficult to see what forgiveness looks like," said Gail Kees, pastor at Saint John's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Stroudsburg.
Kees said she will mention biblical stories that deal with forgiveness in her sermon and connect their messages with current events.
But she stressed she will not try to convince congregants that forgiveness is easy or the same for everybody.
"Forgiveness is not one size fits all," Kees said.
Pastor George Taylor at Stroudsburg's First Presbyterian Church also acknowledged the importance of delivering messages that congregants could relate to and, more importantly, not feel alienated by.
"We are dealing with a matter that is so incredibly sacred to some people, that you really must be very careful with words because you would never want to run the risk of trivializing the event," said Taylor.
The essential message Taylor said he will deliver will be the same as on other Sundays, that faith and religion "gives us strength to survive and grow," he said.
Mountainhome United Methodist Church Pastor Barbara Housley, who will not be mentioning 9/11 in her sermon but rather in certain prayers, said that she, too, thinks that core messages in the Bible can help people who are struggling with how and what to feel on this anniversary.
"I think we need to remember to forgive our neighbors no matter who they are. Jesus calls on us to love, not retaliate."
Other religious leaders said holding interfaith memorial services this weekend is fitting.
"I think one thing we've learned these last 10 years is that the world is way too small to allow certain parochial attitudes to still exist," said Joseph Mendelsohn, a rabbi at Temple Israel in Scranton.
Mendelsohn said that he will be participating in an interfaith ceremony at St. Peter's Cathedral in Scranton and intends to quote the parts of the Bible, Koran and Torah that promote peace and unity.
"Religion cannot be a tool for violence," he said. "I think all good religious people can agree on that."
Other local religious leaders said they were worried by the amount of violence that 9/11 generated and will reflect on their concerns in their sermons.
"Whatever name you give the divine, we are called by it to respond to brutality like the attacks with a far more sweeping love of neighbor than we have demonstrated," said Barnaby Feder, a minister at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of the Poconos. "I will preach that 9/11 no longer refers to the specific events of Sept. 11, 2001, as much as it does to an annual challenge to account for who we perceive to be our enemies and how, as a religious community, we are striving to transform destructive conflicts into healthy ones."
9/11 sermons: From pulpit, a spirit of forgiveness. I liked this summation of the general
religious point of view that will be taught to Americans today. The power of Unity is most desirable. The amelioration of the death dealing consciousness of hate is past due. We now embrace the new consciousness of love for all mankind and animal alike. All of nature, all of life truly becomes sacred in global consciousness.
We grow up spiritually.
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