News Release
September 2002
(Bethlehem,
Pennsylvania) — Moravian College will commemorate the first anniversary
of the September 11 terrorist attacks on America with a special day-long
program, “A Day of Remembrance, Healing and Hope.” The program
will commence at 8:45 a.m. on Wednesday, September 11, 2003, in Johnston
Hall. The opening ceremony will begin with a procession of four vigil
candles (one for each of the crashed airliners) and welcoming remarks
from the College chaplain, David Bennett. Moravian College president
Ervin J. Rokke will offer opening remarks, followed by a three-minute
moment of silence. The choir will participate by singing the anthem.
The College will the shorten class times slightly for the first two
periods on Wednesday, so that students and faculty can attend the morning
program.
Beginning at 9:15 a.m., the college community will be
directed to the Haupert Union Building where “A Wall of Reflection”
will be displayed. The HUB walls will contain news accounts and photos
of the atrocity along with students’ words of expression.
Faculty members from the Psychology Department will take
students through an emotional exercise, Guided Reflections of Grief
and Healing From 10 to 11 a.m. in Prosser Auditorium. Beginning at 11
a.m. and lasting throughout the day, a continuous reading of the names
and stories of the victims will be held in Prosser Auditorium.
At 11:30 a.m., members of the campus community will participate
in a “Walking Memorial” that will begin at the Peace Pole
on Moravian’s Main Street campus and continue to City Hall for
the Community Remembrance Day Services held by the City of Bethlehem.
The Moravian College program will continue in Prosser Auditorium at
1:30 p.m. with “Words of Healing,” a reading of Poetry and
prose centering around the theme of healing.
A multi-faith holy readings, liturgical dance, drama,
and community singing will take place at 3:30 p.m. in the Saal, located
in the Moravian Theological Seminary at 60 W. Locust Street. Steve Gordy,
professor of religion, Moravian College, will present “Finding
Hope Amidst the Rubble: Reflections of a Theologian” at 5:30 p.m.
in Prosser Auditorium.
The program will continue at 6 p.m. with a special talk
by Moravian College alumni Frank C. Chou ’96, who escaped from
the 61st floor of World Trade Center II, the second building to be hit
in the September 11 terrorist attacks. Chou, who began work at Dean
Witter (which then merged with Morgan Stanley) right after his graduation,
was relatively new to the World Trade Center office, which occupied
floors 44 through 76 of the now-destroyed tower.
Following Frank Chou will be a special talk by alumni
J. Hugh Gratz, a licensed clinical social worker, a workshop presenter,
and an organizational consultant in private practice in Trenton, N.J.
Gratz was named the Central New York Social Worker of the Year in 1988
and is volunteering as a member of the NYC Red Cross mental health team
working with people affected by the terrorist attack on the World Trade
Center.
The campus community is invited to take a moment for prayer
and reflection in the Borhek Chapel and in the Saal (Bahnson Center)
from 7 to 8 p.m.
The day-long program will culminate with Light Within
the Darkness, a multi-faith candlelight service held at the Peace Pole
at 8 p.m. This special ceremony will begin with a welcome and invocation
from chaplain Bennett. The four Candles used in opening ceremony will
be brought to the podium by four students (Muslim, Jewish, Christian,
Hindu), a liturgical prayer of hope will be read antiphonally between
them. As the choir signs an anthem, the flame from the four candles
will be used to light all the candles at the vigil.
The day-long ceremony will come to a close as College
president Ervin J. Rokke provides the concluding words of hope and inspiration.
During president Rokke’s address, a large evergreen tree will
be dedicated for the victims of 9/11. The tree will be lit with thousands
of white lights, one for each victim of the terrorist attacks on America.
A commemorative inscribed plaque will be placed by the tree (The tree
will be illuminated by two flood lights throughout the year). The public
is invited to the Light Within the Darkeness candlelight service.
Moravian College is a private, coeducational, selective
liberal arts college located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Tracing its
founding to 1742, it is recognized as America's sixth-oldest college.
Visit the Web site at www.moravian.edu.
