Sometimes hope is only a candle flickering in the wind....

In a week of bombings, downed aircraft and preparations for war, young people on campuses from Winston-Salem to Cullowhee came together in prayer, worship services and candlelight vigils. Stunned by the devastation which they had witnessed on television on Sept. 11, and often feeling far from home, students sought both consolation and answers from their various campus ministries.

United Campus Ministries, an interdenominational group, held a candlelight vigil on Sept. 12 at Western Carolina University. Students at the Newman Center at WCU opened the center for prayer at noon on Sept. 11 and kept the center open around the clock until Friday.

“Students were coming in at 4 a.m. to pray for an hour,” says Colleen McDermott, the Catholic coordinator for campus activities for the Diocese of Charlotte. “There was also a large ecumenical prayer service at the tower and different information sessions offered by the university.”

Other universities also saw large numbers of students gathering for prayer. At Wake Forest University, hundreds of students came together to pray for their country and for those killed by the terrorists.
Daily mass at WFU, normally consisting of seven to 10 students, rose to 10 times that number in the days following the attacks. Students at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte filled an outdoor quad for their service, overflowing onto the sidewalks and grass between the surrounding buildings.
Students at UNCA and Appalachian also attended ecumenical services, praying for peace and for the United States. The Benedictines at Belmont Abby College invited all on the campus to attend their prayer services. One Belmont Abby student, a trained firefighter, spent much of the week in New York City working with the rescuers.

Anger against foreign students, particularly against those from the Middle East, was largely absent from the universities. “One Muslim student was beaten on the campus of UNC-G,” McDermott said. “The assault took place at night, and no one was sure whether the assailants were students or outsiders. Several colleges in Greensboro had a special vigil for tolerance after that incident.”

McDermott, who received e-mails from campus ministries around the country in the days following the attacks, said similar prayer services were held on college and university campuses across the United States. Attendance at churches ministering to students also rose dramatically.

According to McDermott, the importance of having a physical site — a house, a room — for campus ministry became apparent during the crisis. These centers provided a focus for students, a safe haven in which to share both their faith and their fears. “The universities that had these centers tell me that they helped provide a place of solace and comfort for the students,” McDermott said. At North Carolina A&T University, for example, the Thea House served food to students and invited those who needed to call home — particularly those students from New York — to use the center’s telephones. In several other centers, students waited with friends to receive words about family and friends who worked in Manhattan or who were known to be flying that morning.

Although some observers have wondered how meaningful these conversions will prove in the long run, McDermott has no doubt that good will come of these tragedies. She witnessed many students coming closer to God during the turmoil of that week. She also addressed the lack of heroes in the lives of many students. “Young people of this generation have had few real heroes,” McDermott said. “The firefighters, the police, the passengers who rushed the terrorists on the airplane knowing that they were going to die — these were heroes, and the young people whom I’ve spoken to recognize that.”

McDermott also believes that the events of Sept. 11 may make young people approach commitment more firmly. “We now know that the people on the plane in Pennsylvania were aware that they would probably die,” she said. “They were ordinary people making extraordinary choices. Many students whom I know now understand that their choices count, that what they do counts for something.”

(Jeff Minick owns Saints and Scholars bookstore on Main Street in Waynesville.)

 

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The Smoky Mountain News