Rescue Work Was 'Spirit-Lifting' -- Trinity Priest

The World Trade Center attack left Trinity Wall Street, in the words of the Rector, Dr. Daniel P. Matthews, "reeling with the shock of what has hit us..." Disruption of Trinity's activities was so extensive that one priest described Trinity’s family as "displaced people". Nevertheless, ministry continued despite the lack of central co-ordination for the first few days.

Nathan Brockman reports on the experiences of the Rev. Lyndon Harris, associate responsible for ministry at St. Paul's Chapel, across the street from the World Trade Center.

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After an escape to the South Ferry amid "black dust and fear" two days before, Father Lyndon Harris was drawn back to the scene of terror Thursday September 13, a priest probing the heart of devastation for hope.

"Ground Zero was beyond my worst nightmare. I couldn't have imagined it," said Father Harris. "All the rescue workers were working so hard, trying to pull up bodies."

In the afternoon, he met a team of Roman Catholic priests, who asked for his help. They brought him to a makeshift morgue near the Winter Garden area of the World Financial Center, where Father Harris said Last Rites over body bags.

He quoted a firefighter he talked to, who was pointing to a row of shoes on a fence near City Hall. "These are the guys who got here first. They didn't have time to change into their gear before they arrived. These guys won't be coming to get their shoes back."

Earlier in the day, Trinity had received an e-mail from a family saying they had lost contact with their sister and aunt living in an apartment on Fulton Street, down the road from St. Paul's. The e-mail was forwarded to Fr. Harris, who tracked down the woman, found she had no telephone service, but was otherwise fine. "I was thrilled," he said just a shade of the happiness felt by the family upon learning their aunt was alive and well.

There is constant worry about the historic St. Paul's building as news comes in of buildings threatening to collapse in the area. St. Paul's is the oldest public building in continuous use in Manhattan, and it was the church in which George Washington gave thanks for his inauguration. "But we would gladly give up St. Paul's to have saved just one life across the street," Fr. Harris says. So far, though, "not even a window was broken."

He accompanied a team of building managers Jim Doran, Michael Borrero, and Domenick Iuliano past three police checkpoints to look at Trinity's property in the area -- St. Paul's, Trinity Church at Wall Street and Broadway, the parish's office block at 74 Trinity Place and its pre-school at 68 Trinity Place.

A surface examination revealed no serious damage. Some of the large trees facing Church Street at St. Paul's were badly damaged by debris, and Father Harris speculated that these very trees may have saved St. Paul’s. Gravestones were toppled and broken in pieces and ash covered the gravestones and grass.

Resoundingly, Father Harris refused to talk only about what was bleak: "To see so many people going out of their way, and all the rescue workers working so hard," he says, "struck me as spirit-lifting."

** Soon after the attack on Tuesday, Father Milton C. Williams, who was assisting with medical triage at Liberty and Trinity Place when the first tower collapsed, opened St. Paul's and offered it to emergency workers as a morgue. At that stage there were no bodies to place there. Later, Father Jamie Callaway placed Trinity properties at the disposal of City emergency management services.