 |
|
|
|
| |
¹13 (176) September, 2003
Black September
Through the eyes of the Orthodox
The tragedy which rocked America on September 11, 2001, caught up in its terrible wake many parishioners of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad living in New York, Washington, and the suburbs of these cities. In those alarming days, clerics day and night cared for souls. Their phones were red-hot: parishioners, especially people of advanced age, were going through nervous shock and ceaselessly, several times a day, called pastors and Hierarchs.
These events were softened somewhat by the fact that in many temples of the Russia Orthodox Church Abroad, festive, divine services were being held that day in honor of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist. That is, people were in the very place where they should have been in those terrible minutes - in the temple. The main topics of sermons that day were: repentance, remembrance of one's own mortality, and Christian compassionate love. Many of the faithful were saying that in the crucible of those events they really felt the invisible presence of the strict preacher of repentance, Saint John the Baptist
Some parishioners of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad worked in the buildings of the World Trade Center, attacked by terrorists, or in neighboring skyscrapers. And now, a month having passed from the time of the acts of terrorism, we can bear witness to the multitude of occurrences of miraculous salvation of the faithful. Let's take a look at some eloquent examples.
The warden of the Synodal cathedral dedicated to the icon of the Mother of God (The Sign) in New York, Vladimir Cirillovich Golitsyn', was supposed to have come to region of the terrorist acts in New York that day for a meeting, but, by divine Providence, he did not go to the meeting, and, in this way, was saved.
Servant of God Alexandra Ohotinoj was scheduled for a business meeting on the day of the tragedy in the World Trade Center. When she came up to the place of the meeting, she became a witness to the fire and the fall of the buildings, but her life was spared by the mercy of God.
Sergei Konozenko, not long before the terrorist acts in New York, was interviewed for a job in a company situated on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center. By the mercy of God, Sergei was denied the job. On September 11 all the workers of this company who were in the office at the time of the attacks perished. Sergei's life was spared.
The nephew of the Bishop Mitrofan of Boston, Sergei Zhohov, was supposed to go for a job interview on the day of the terrorist acts in one of the companies on the 45th floor of the second fallen tower. The day before this Sergei had postponed the interview in the company for personal reasons and in this way was saved from death.
One parishioner of the Synodal cathedral of the Mother of God related how for some reason she overslept that day and did not go to work in her office, located in one of the destroyed skyscrapers.
The daughter of the Priest Vsevolod Dutikov, Larissa, was supposed to go to her school, situated several blocks from the World Trade Center. However she could not go to school that day, as she had some sudden technical trouble at home.
In the skyscrapers attacked by terrorists, at the moments of the explosion, there were several children of our Church.
Subdeacon Vadim Arefiev and Sergei Malov were in the subterranean part of the building and successfully escaped. Sergei recalls that when he got out of the building, that people and pieces of the building were falling literally all about him. Sergei ran from the building, but towards him (!) moved a rather large crowd of gapers, who wanted to come closer and see what was going on.
The late Archpriest Sergei Chertkov's niece, Elena Chertkov, was on the 20th floor of a flame-consumed building. Having tried, with other people, to get down, she discovered that the doors and stairways are locked on each floor. Firefighters were saving people, coming up from below and opening the doors. People descended while the firefighters continued ascending higher and higher…until the building collapsed.
The servant of God, the firefighter Ilja had that day off, by the Providence of the Lord. More than twenty of his close comrades from work died in the buildings of the World Trade Center.
Very many of our parishioners were in immediate proximity to the collapsed skyscrapers; among them: police officer Nikolai Chernavskij, Mikhail Jordan, George Geringer, Peter Lopuhin, the son of the Archpriest George Larin, John. All of them were morally shaken from what they saw. Before the buildings collapsed, from the highest floors, consumed by the fire, many unlucky casualties of the tragedy were jumping to their death, so that the streets all around were strewn with corpses and pieces of bodies. One of the Russian Orthodox witnesses of the events recalls, that the sight of falling people shocked him; for some reason he especially remembers that many of them were well-dressed (in suits and ties), and some, falling, held hands. When the buildings collapsed, the majority of people ran away from that terrible place, away from death. Then some Orthodox witnesses of the events recall, that they succumbed to the general panic which gripped the crowd of people. They ran and ran nonstop, having forgotten about everything. But they simply had to remember God, and in their souls an astonishing calm came on, and, finding themselves among universal, fatiguing hysteria, they descend into pacifying spiritual peace.
To the above cases should be added one other "coincidence". The son of the Archpriest Igor Grebinka, Dmitrij Grebinka, who worked at the Pentagon, was sent on a mission to Kosovo one month before September's acts of terrorism. Relatives worried, that Dmitrij was being sent to such a dangerous place. But the Providence of God ruled otherwise. It turned out, that death awaited many in the service, who were at the Pentagon on September 11. Dmitrij Grebinka was not among them.
It is assumed, that among those who perished were newly-arrived Russian emigrants, possibly devotees of our Synodal cathedral. It is known with certainty about at least one such person. The widow of the servant of God George, who died tragically, turned to the priest Andrew Sommer, serving under the Synod, with a request for a burial service in his absence. George, a carpenter by trade, was on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center at a business meeting, and was unable to exit the flame-consumed building.
Despite the grief of these tragic events, directly or indirectly affecting all New Yorkers, among these the Russian Orthodox, we must, with humility and the fear of the Lord, acknowledge God's great mercy in relation to the children of our Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. Very many of our parishes have truly been miraculously saved at the time of the terrible events caused by the acts of terrorism.
Must I even say what this obligates us to? To those, who stared death in the face on September 11, nothing need be explained. They understood how deceptive earthly life is with its fleeting pleasures, how important it is to always remember about the hour of death, and be ready to be held accountable before the throne of the Most High Judge… It is necessary for every one of us to reflect on the mercy of God, manifested to us anew. For we will treasure Orthodoxy, for the sake of which, it is believed, the Lord has pardoned many of us!
|
|
|
|
|
|
