By comparison, churches did open their doors, literally.
"Manhattan Churches Open Doors after Tragedy
By Linda Bloom
Helping the walking wounded and providing sanctuary for prayer and hope, United Methodist churches in Manhattan threw their doors open following the Sept. 11 World Trade Center tragedy.
After the twin towers collapsed, Washington Square United Methodist Church in Greenwich Village opened its doors and telephone lines to crying, shaken passersby.
"Then the walking wounded began appearing – folks who had walked out of the 'ground zero' area," reported the Rev. Jacquelyn Moore in a widely-circulated email message. "Their injuries were not major, but many were in shock. We set up water and some food… broke out cots from our homeless shelter so some could lie down. We set up a TV in the corner of the sanctuary so folks could get information.
"We didn’t stop to count, but think that 150 to 200 folks came through. The staff and some community members of Washington Square Church are the best – they were here and worked and cried with folks."
Washington Square is a few blocks from St. Vincent’s Medical Center, where both victims and rescue workers were being treated for injuries.
Another United Methodist Church, Metropolitan Duane on West 13th Street, is right next door to St. Vincent’s. The congregation, led by the Rev. Takayuki Ishii, believes its most important role in the disaster "is to provide space to come in and pray." As the tragedy unfolded, "many of the St. Vincent workers came in for prayer," Ishii said. Since then, rescue workers taken to St. Vincent’s for treatment have come in to pray as well.
Metropolitan Duane most likely will be used as a staging area for future United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) activities, such as grief counseling, in downtown Manhattan. The Rev. Paul Dirdak, UMCOR’s chief executive, is part of the congregation.
The United Methodist church just two blocks from the World Trade Center,"
United Methodist churches further uptown also opened their doors on a day when many people were walking the streets because public transportation had been shut down. On the Upper West Side, the Rev. James ("K") Karpen greeted people outside the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew. "We invited them in to stop and pray for awhile and talk," he said.
A prayer vigil that evening with Congregation B'nai Jeshurun, a Jewish congregation that shares space at the church, drew 500 to 600 people, according to Karpen. Together, the two congregations are planning to set up a free trauma counseling center next week.
At Park Avenue Church on the Upper East Side, the Rev. William Shillady, pastor, and the Rev. Bryan Hooper, associate pastor, stood outside in ministerial robes, inviting those walking by to pray.
"People would stop in their tracks and say, 'Yes, that's what I need to do,'" Shillady wrote in a letter to his congregation. "We had a steady stream of people. One young man, with tears in his eyes, walked by, then reached out and hugged me. Another father, with his daughter’s hand tightly in his, asked for a blessing for himself and his daughter. That day our open doors meant more than ever before."
Like many other churches, Christ Church, also on the Upper East Side, has had evening services for members and others in the community who are searching for security and reassurance in the midst of massive tragedy. The Rev. Stephen Bauman, pastor, recalled how one of their newer members attending a Sept. 12 service told him about arriving at the World Trade Center just before the blast that rained down body and airplane parts around him. "He was just, obviously, shaken to the core,"
"Let us continue to be in prayer for the victims of this disaster, all emergency workers, all medical personnel, and the families that have been directly affected,"
http://gbgm-umc.org/Umcor/emergency/wtc3.stm
I'm sure that there was a lot more welcoming activity like this by churches. These are merely a few examples that put the wt headquarters in the bad light in which they do live and breathe.
S
