CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM
Planning for the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks was the first order of business for the Rev. Ann McElligott, St. Andrew's Cathedral's new dean.
Reflecting on 9/11 The doors will be open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday at St. Andrew's Cathedral to offer passersby a serene refuge from the battering media images predictable on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
St. Andrew’s Cathedral will open
Oahu churches will hold memorial services
its doors offering escape from the
hours of media coverage Wednesday
Isle Muslims to pray for 9/11 lives lost
Community cleanup
Stories by Mary Adamski
madamski@starbulletin.comThere will be services morning, noon and night but in between there will be silence and space for the people who seek a quiet place for reflection.
"We glibly refer to 9/11, and we all know what that means," said the Rev. Ann McElligott, new cathedral dean.
"This has been a shattering event. We are still integrating what it means to us personally. We want to give people a chance to listen to God, whatever way one does that, and also that bit of healing of self."
Planning for that day was the first order of business for the new pastor of the historic cathedral which is the seat of the Episcopal bishop. McElligott will be making history herself when she takes the position as the first woman dean there Tuesday.
McElligott was appointed in June by Bishop Richard S.O. Chang after being chosen in an 18-month selection process by a congregation committee. A priest for 18 years, she spent the past seven years in Australia as principal of St. John's College, the first woman to head an Anglican theological school in that country.
"A Day of Remembrance will first be about remembrance, prayer for peace and healing," she said.
"It is something we do as people who believe in something beyond, a spirit greater, more powerful, more living, more sustaining than can be destroyed by a well-directed plane.
"The undergirding goodness surrounding humanity is not evidenced in that event. It reveals that innate anger and violence all of us carry in our humanity. It has changed the landscape of the world. We were invaded in our heart.
"Beyond that, we ask where is God in the world where this happened and how are we called to live in a world as people who are reconciled. The Gospel calls us to be reconciled to one another. You want to be a kind, empathetic person but you are enraged. You want simple answers ... there aren't simple answers.
"The solution is to be more open and less terrified and yet, we are more terrified and less open," said McElligott.
The idea of a day of reflection fits with her philosophy of a newcomer's role. "If you enter listening, people tell their stories," she said, wisdom learned from her assignment in Australia, where she faced a familiar culture but "with particular nuances and assumptions.
"The experience led me to challenge some assumptions I grew up with and realize they were cultural. It is crucial to listen, particularly to a place and its culture. I try not to come with agendas."
Her role as first woman in the Australia job came less than five years after that country's Anglican church accepted the ordination of women -- a generation later than in the United States.
Viewing the post-Sept. 11 events from another country gave McElligott and her husband Thomas, a retired Episcopal priest, insight into their own.
"There was empathy, there is a real bond," she said. "Australia does understand attack, it was attacked in World War II. What wasn't there was the sense of invasion that America felt.
"In our American culture, we start with an assumption that we are the city on the hill, the light to the world. All European colonizing countries did the same thing. We Americans are still new at it. We haven't felt ourselves to need others as much as we have tried to have them like us."
"We don't listen to the news of other countries; there is so much going on in our country. We vaguely flip by the events of the rest of the world. In Australia, we were constantly hearing world news daily. We became much more attuned to the rest of the world."
CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM
The Rev. Ann McElligott is the new dean of St. Andrew's Cathedral, the first woman ever chosen for the position.
McElligott earned her doctorate in religious education at New York University and her master's degree at the General Theological Seminary in New York. The seminary presented her with an honorary doctorate in May. While in Australia, she was also a canon at Christ Church Cathedral in Newcastle and has previously served as an associate pastor in Indianapolis.
In her interview here earlier this year, the cathedral committee asked her to describe her leadership style. "I used 'maeutic' a Greek word that means to midwife ... to use what's best in ourselves. A midwife is very active in her work. The baby doesn't come if she doesn't work with a vision of a live baby."
"The committee was very clear on what they want," she said. "One key is adult formation ... which means being formed as a Christian, to share faith with others, to discover how God is alive in your life. All this a culture that puts the church in the private sector and not as part of daily life!"
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Oahu churches will hold
special memorial services
ranging from musical presentations
to guest speakersComforting the living while mourning the dead is a common theme for church services planned to mark the Sept. 11 anniversary. All are open to the public.
"That day is so painful," said the Rev. Daniel Kong, pastor of Central Baptist Church.
"We need to reflect on what is so meaningful for America. Here we are enjoying freedoms in a great democracy and we need to preserve these freedoms.
"As Benjamin Franklin said, the freedom we have is the freedom to do right and to live moral lives, not the freedom to do anything we want."
Sept. 11th-related events at churches:
>> Sacred music by Russian and Greek composers will be performed in a free concert at 5 p.m. tomorrow at Sts. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Pacific, 930 Lunalilo St. The memorial will feature the Phaeacian Chorus directed by Stelio Scordilis.
>> Singers at Kawaiahao Church, 957 Punchbowl St., will participate in a global "Rolling Requiem" Wednesday. Some 160 choral groups in 20 time zones around the world will sing Mozart's "Requiem" at 8:46 a.m., the time of the first attack on World Trade Center. A total of 115 singers from various local choirs will perform as the Masterworks Chorale under the direction of Susan Duprey. Soloists are Malia Kaai, Lorna Mount, Ella Edwards, Joseph Pettit and Timothy Carney with John McCreary as organist. For information, call 595-3043.
>> Three Nuuanu congregations will sponsor events at Nuuanu Congregational Church, 2651 Pali Highway, which will be open for prayer and reflection from 8:46 a.m. to 1 p.m. Preschoolers will participate in the 10:05 a.m. church bell ringing. Brief meditations on the hour throughout the morning will be led by the Rev. Tom Fujita, Nuuanu Congregational senior pastor, the Rev. Mike Young of First Unitarian Church and the Rev. Gary Barbaree of Harris United Methodist Church.
>> St. Andrew's Cathedral, Queen Emma Square, will be open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. with services during the day. A Solemn Requiem Eucharist will be held at noon, with the Rt. Rev. Richard S.O. Chang, Hawaii Bishop, as speaker. Parke Chapel will be the site of the daily 7 a.m. Eucharist and evening prayer at 5:15 p.m. The Labyrinth, a tool for walking meditation, will be open in Davies Hall throughout the day. A 7:30 p.m. Community Remembrance in Word and Music will feature an address by the Rev. Ann McElligott, cathedral dean, and a performance of Faure's "Requiem" by the cathedral choir.
>> Tenney Theater on St. Andrew's Cathedral grounds will be the setting of a 2 p.m. film presentation. To be shown are documentaries about churches near Ground Zero: "Spirituality at St. Paul's Chapel," which stands across from the World Trade Center site and "Spirituality at Trinity Church, Wall Street" with interviews of eyewitnesses and an exploration of theological themes in the aftermath. The films will also be shown at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday by the Hawaii Geographic Society in the Von Holt Room of the cathedral.
>> Central Union Church's Atherton Memorial Chapel will be open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. for prayer and reflection. Staff clergy members will be available all day for people desiring guidance or shared prayers. A 6:30 p.m. service will be held, with scriptural readings, songs, prayers and candle-lighting.
>> Haleiwa Beach Park will be the scene of a 6 p.m. service sponsored by the Haleiwa/Waialua Coalition of Churches. A flower will be cast at sea for each of the Sept. 11 victims. Participants are invited to bring a candle, a flag and flowers.
>> The 7 p.m. service at Central Baptist Church, 1217 Nehoa St. will feature Navy Capt. Tim Morita, chief of CINCPAC chaplains, as speaker. Morita was at the Pentagon when it was attacked. Music will include pianist Ginny Chu and soloist John Hom.
>> The Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa, 712 N. School St., will be the setting of the Catholic diocese service. A 7 p.m. memorial Mass to be celebrated by retired Honolulu Catholic Bishop Joseph Ferrario. Other Catholic parishes will hold services.
>> The Baha'i Faith will hold a 6:30 p.m. service at the Honolulu Baha'i Center, 2165 10th Ave., Palolo. A 6:30 p.m. Twilight Tattoo of memorial music will be performed by piper Patrick D. Roberts of the Celtic Pipes and Drums.
>> First United Methodist Church, 1020 S. Beretania St., will hold a 7 p.m. Service of Remembrance. The Rev. Bob Morley, senior pastor, will officiate. Free parking is accessible from Victoria Street.
>> The 7 p.m. Service of Remembrance at Waiokeola Congregational Church, 4705 Kilauea Ave., will feature speakers sharing stories of the effects of the attacks on people's lives.
>> First Baptist Church of Haleiwa, 66-415 Haleiwa Road, will hold a 7 p.m. prayer service for America.
>> First Presbyterian Church, 1822 Keeaumoku St., will sponsor a 7:30 p.m. service. Pastor Dan Chun will speak.
A list of other public memorial events may be found in tomorrow's Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
Click for online
calendars and events.
