in 2011, the 10th anniversary the day fell on Sunday and we had our regular 11 am service and then we joined with St. Asaphs in Bowling Green for a 7:30pm service, a service of Steadfast and Remembrance
The Prayers of the People at 11am featured Bishop Shannon’s “Litany for the Tenth Anniversary of September 11, 2001, a part of the bulletin and the evening service at 7:30am used “The Litany of Remembrance” was written by The Reverend Thomas Weitzel, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Links
1. Bulletin. The image is from that service.
2. 11:00am Prayers of the People
3. Description
4 Sermon
Part of the sermon covered forgiveness and reconciliation
“I’d like to point out here the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation.
“Forgiving someone is something we choose to do. Desiderio says that forgiveness is a decision to let go of resentment and thoughts of revenge. We cancel the emotional debt the other person owes us to free ourselves from destructive feelings.
“As Christians, we decide to accept God’s grace of forgiveness and to extend it to others. We feel differently. We find ourselves praying for the person rather than wanting to get back at the person.
“Forgiveness is something we do regardless of whether or not the other person apologizes to us or changes, or feels remorse. Ultimately, forgiveness of the one who hurt us is something we do for ourselves.
“As Lynn McQuinn, who lost her husband on 9-11 says, “On the road to peace, we have to cross the bridge of forgiveness.” Each one of us makes a decision about whether or not we want to walk down the road to peace in our own lives, regardless of what the person who hurt us chooses.
“Reconciliation is a two way street. We can forgive the person who has hurt us without being reconciled to that person.
“For instance, forgiveness is NOT putting up with hurtful behavior, setting the reset button and returning to a situation in which we get hurt all over again.
“If the other person is not willing to be reconciled to us, then we might have to remove ourselves from the situation, because we have compassion for ourselves. So even as we forgive someone who injures and hurts us, we do not continue to accept abuse as part of forgiveness. “