President Barack Obama and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani read from the Bible during this past weekend’s commemoration of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City, despite Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s decision not to include prayer or religious leaders in the ceremony. The Christian Post reported that the president read all of Psalm 46, Giuliani read from Ecclesiastes during the ceremony, and former president George W. Bush read a letter from Abraham Lincoln which made reference to God as our Heavenly Father.
Many church and denomination leaders were angered by Bloomberg’s decision not to include clergy or prayers of any kind in the official 10th anniversary commemoration of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. But Giuliani began his remarks that day by saying, “The perspective that we need, and have needed, to get through the last 10 years, and the years that remain, are best expressed by the words of God as inscribed in the book of Ecclesiastes,” and he ended with, “God bless every soul that we lost. God bless the family members who have to endure that loss, and God guide us to our reunion in Heaven, and God bless the United States of America.”
Countless other church leaders held their own ceremonies in their churches; a few held gatherings in New York City, including Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, who performed their ceremony with the help of a sister church located near Ground Zero.
What did your church do to commemorate 9/11? Share your stories below.
