Prayer Breakfast Promotes Unity - SuffolkJournal.com

Prayer Meeting Bolster
Community Spirit
by Jane Lee Bock

Back to Coverage of 9-11 Disaster

RESOURCES

WHERE
TO DONATE BLOOD

HOTLINES
& USEFUL TELEPHONE NUMBERS

INFORMATION
&
RESOURCES

Huntington Township Chamber of Commerce offers links and info.

Kings Park Cares - Community Rallies to Send Relief to WTC Volunteers

October 10, 2001

Suffolk County Legislature Presiding Officer Paul Tonna held a prayer breakfast this morning, bringing together clergy from several denominations and members of a wide variety of religious groups to pray for both a swift resolution to worldwide conflicts and the comfort of people suffering because of the September 11th disasters and the resulting war.

More than 200 religious leaders from Catholic, Baptist, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim churches gathered in Huntington for the meeting, joined by the Walt Whitman High School Chamber Ensemble, local VFW #5348, and the Faith Missionary Church Choir.

The message was one of promoting unity and embracing the diversity that is America.

Bishop William Murphy of the Diocese of Rockville Centre said, "The most potent weapon we have is to pray to God for peace and be witness to one human family. The best way we overcome evil is by doing good."

He added, "While the course of military action is always regrettable it seems there is no alternative in light of the injustice that has been perpetrated. In these circumstances all of us should pray. Pray for the men and women in our armed forces who must carry out these initiatives, pray for our president and all of our elected officials who share in this solemn responsibility, and pray that these military actions be carried out with precision that spares the innocent."

Also calling for unity was Rabbi Steven Moss, head of Suffolk's Anti-Bias Task Force. "I believe that the direction that is laid before us by the one God of all human kind, is that we need to pray, and we need to turn our praynews/2001/pages/WTC_9-11-01/pics/piper2.mpgers into actions. We need to try in our own lives to embrace others, to share our sorrows, hopes and dreams in order to make this a better world to live in. But we also need to defeat evil sometimes and we pray for strength for our country in order to do this."

Finally, Sister Sanaa Nadim, Muslim Chaplain at SUNY Stony Brook said, "It is time for us to reach out to each other. It is time to come together in peace. God is aware of all those who ward off evil. We can keep the voices of those who were silenced on September 11th by the unity of our prayers for peace, love and
justice."