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Chicago (ELCA)-JB — Lutheran congregations near the site where United Flight 93 crashed in 2001 will be involved in special remembrances on Sept. 11, 2006, the fifth anniversary of the tragedy.
United Flight 93 was hijacked by terrorists and eventually forced down by passengers and crew near Shanksville, Pa., as the plane was headed toward a target believed to be in Washington, D.C. Other hijacked planes were crashed that day into the World Trade Center towers in New York and the Pentagon in Arlington, Va. Nearly 3,000 people died and thousands were injured as a result of the attacks.
The Rev. Robert J. Way, pastor of St. Mark Evangelical Lutheran Church, Shanksville, and St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Buckstown, Pa., said he was asked to take part in a service Sept. 11 at the Flight 93 Memorial.
"Members from both (congregations) are integrally connected with the service at the flight memorial, some as first responders, others as property owners and still others as ambassadors and task force members. Our involvement and participation in the service at the crash site will be our main focus again this year," he told the ELCA News Service.
Other south-central Pennsylvania congregations will host special tributes in recognition of the fifth anniversary. Trinity Lutheran Church, Somerset, Pa., will host a program Sept. 10 focusing attention on the crash of United Airlines Flight 93. A multimedia musical dramatization, "Reverence for Life," will feature the words of Albert Schweitzer and the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.
On Sept. 11 Simpson-Temple United (Lutheran and Methodist) Parish, Altoona, Pa., will present its annual patriotic musical tribute, "This Land We Love," featuring music, drama and dance. Participants will include the choirs of Simpson-Temple United Parish and Bethany Lutheran Church, Altoona.