Taken from: InterVarsity Press

THE POWER OF A CITY AT PRAYER
What Happens When Churches Unite for Renewal



by Mac Pie & Katie Sweeting



August, 2002

WAS ANYONE PRAYING IN NEW YORK?

On September 11, 2001, the Twin Towers came down. It was a day no one who lives in New York will ever forget. As the terror unfolded live on television, people around the world saw the unforgettable vision of planes flying into skyscrapers. As the World Trade Center came down, the prayers were going up.

The first known intercessor on the scene, Father Mychal Judge, the firefighters’ priest, was ushered into eternity as he prayed over a fire-fighter who was killed while rescuing others. Rev. Richard Del Rio arrived at Ground Zero on his Harley-Davidson on that fateful Tuesday morning, supplied with a clergy collar, a police identification tag and an intercessor’s heart. As it happens, he was the only pastor on site in those first minutes after the attack. His first prayer assignment was to pray over body parts—that were not attached to a body. Rev. Del Rio was in a constant attitude of prayer as he climbed The Pile, as the rubble became known, aiding in the search for survivors. For days he lived on two or three hours of sleep, returning to The Pile to continue the ministry of prayer.

I was on the fifteenth floor of the Empire State Building at 8:30 a.m. on September 11, preparing for the annual board of directors’ meeting of Concerts of Prayer Greater New York. The first board member, Tom Mahairas, arrived in a rush and informed us that a plane had just crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. My immediate thought was that it must have been pilot error. Soon we learned the awful truth: terrorists had attacked New York City.

The board meeting was canceled, and the Empire State Building— once again the tallest building in New York City—was evacuated. As we exited onto Fifth Avenue we saw billows of coal-black smoke rolling up the avenue from downtown. We crossed the street and had an impromptu prayer meeting then and there.

Trying to leave the island of Manhattan was a surreal experience. Dazed and sooty, hundreds of confused and frightened people were walking uptown. Bridges and tunnels were closed, and as we crawled along in the traffic, the news reported the towers collapsing. At the end of that day, nearly 3,000 people had died, including 300 firefighters. New York City lost more firefighters on September 11 than in all of its previous years combined. One firm with headquarters in the World Trade Center, Cantor Fitzgerald, lost 700 employees. Over 22 million square feet of office space was instantaneously destroyed—the equivalent of downtown Cincinnati. By October, over 80,000 people had lost their jobs.The statistics are staggering, but they become meaningful when we put faces on them. Two of the policemen killed in the attack were from our local 109th precinct in Flushing, Queens. Their widows and children attended a Sunday morning worship service at First Baptist Church of Flushing in October. The congregation wept at the sight of these victims of the World Trade Center disaster. Many in our city, and even in the church, have asked, “Where was God in all of this? Was anyone praying?”

Mayor Guiliani commented in his farewell address that on no other single day in American history had so many lives been lost and saved at the same time. The horrific tragedy of September 11 claimed almost 3,000 precious lives. But if the attack had taken place a few hours later, or if the towers had tipped over rather than imploding, or if the planes had hit the towers on lower floors, as many as 50,000 could have lost their lives that day. The evil a fallen world inflicts is horrible. But God was very present on September 11, restraining an even more devastating loss of life.

As news of the attack was broadcast, millions of Christians were praying here in New York and across the nation. Churches immediately began opening their doors for impromptu prayer meetings. On Sunday, September 16, almost every church in New York had an influx of lapsed members and visitors. People were seeking God and looking for answers.The Ground Zero Clergy Task Force emerged in the days following the attack, led by Rev. Marcos Rivera and Rev. Richard Del Rio. This spontaneous coalition of pastors from the Lower East Side convened a prayer meeting on Sunday, September 16. Over 50 clergy and 2,000 people worshiped and prayed at a public park adjacent to Primitive Christian Church, five blocks from Ground Zero.

The American Families Assistance Fund was created by World Vision and Concerts of Prayer just two days after the attack. By the end of December more than six million dollars had been raised to help meet the spiritual, emotional and physical needs of families directly affected by the collapse of the World Trade Center. Applicants received their checks in local churches, accompanied by prayer from the pastor of the church. All of the applicants have been blessed by this arrangement and are very thankful for the financial help. Some have even accepted the Lord Jesus as Savior for the first time.

The Network New York City Coalition convened its first meeting on Friday, September 14. The uniting of more than a dozen of the leading Christian organizations has led to a coordinated response to the tragedy. This coordinated response resulted in the formation of <www.networknyc.org>, a collaborative website to coordinate events and resources in New York City. One of the lessons from September 11 has been the reminder that we can accomplish much more together than we can alone.

It is amazing to look back and observe the pace at which coalitions formed and networks united. The groundwork had been laid in the previous fifteen years of united praying in the New York region. Pastors who had prayed together now joined hands in prayer over traumatized rescue workers at Ground Zero. Christian leaders who had prayed together now planned trauma counseling training and memorial services.

Over eighty Christian leaders met on September 24 at the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, New York, pastored by Rev. A. R. Bernard. As a result of that meeting, a memorial service was planned for the one-month anniversary of 9/11. In just seventeen days, satellite technology was in place and dozens of churches had signed up to participate. On October 11, over 10,000 people joined together in prayer at churches across the region, including 6,000 on site at the Christian Cultural Center. The broadcast reached across North and South America.

During the memorial service Rev. Franklin Graham and Rev. A. R. Bernard spoke, acknowledging that all nations of the world had been affected by the attack. They were joined by Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald (a financial services conglomerate), a man still devastated by the loss of 700 employees, including his own brother. Four of the New York Yankees participated via video, and one of the many pregnant widows gave her poignant testimony. Rev. Franklin Graham testified to the certainty of God in an uncertain world.