CLEVELAND, Sept. 11, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) -- The United Church of Christ today established an online forum for its members and others to give and receive mutual support during the aftermath of what appears to have been a terrorist strike at the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the plane crash in western Pennsylvania.
The online forum is part of the denomination's response to the current tragedies. Church leaders hope the forum will give UCC members and others the opportunity to express their feelings and reactions. The UCC's website also will provide links to updates from Church World Service, the disaster relief arm of the National Council of Churches.
At the denomination's Church House at 700 Prospect Ave. in Cleveland, Edith A. Guffey, Associate General Minister, and the Rev. José A. Malayang, Executive Minister of Local Church Ministries, gathered the Cleveland staff as a people of God into the Amistad Chapel shortly after the disaster struck. The staff prayed for the victims, their families and friends, the United States and the wider world, singing songs of comfort and assurance.
"Although we are but one of the many expressions of who God is in our world, we are mindful of our call and our denomination's rich heritage as peacemakers," said Guffey, recalling Matthew 5:9: `Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.'
UCC General Minister and President the Rev. John H. Thomas, who is visiting with partner churches in Europe, called in from Frankfort, Germany, with the following statement:
"The violence that afflicts so much of the world that we have witnessed on television from Kosovo, Palestine, Ireland and elsewhere has now come to our homes. My heart is broken and my prayers go out to those whose loved ones have died, those who are injured and those overwhelmed by fear today. "I also pray for those who are risking their lives to save others. In the coming days we all will be tempted to surrender to our rage, to seek vengeance and to be consumed by bitterness. I call upon the members of the United Church of Christ to join in reflection about the culture of violence that consumes our world, to pray night and day for God's presence and to resist the impulse to respond to violence with violence. "This is a time of testing for our souls. May we remember that our only comfort is that we belong to Christ."
UCC pastors in the Somerset, Pa., near the crash site of the fourth plane, have rushed to Somerset Hospital to offer pastoral care assistance for victims of the crash and their families.
The offices at the UCC Church House in downtown Cleveland closed at 12 p.m. ET today (Sept. 11). All staff members are safe, including those in the UCC's Washington, D.C., and New York City offices.
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