Invocation by Rev. Dr. V. Simpson Turner honoring 9/11 first responders and victims
FDNY Chaplain Rev. Dr. V. Simpson Turner delivers an invocation on the eve of the 25th anniversary of September 11, honoring the 343 FDNY members, the 2,900+ lives lost, and those who died from 9/11-related illnesses in the years since.
We will now have today's invocation, which will be delivered by the Reverend Dr.
V.
Simpson Turner, the senior pastor of Mount Carmel Baptist Church, which is located at 714 Quincy Street in Brooklyn.
Let us bow our heads.
Eternal God, we come before you on this sacred eve.
Standing in the shadow of a day, this city will never forget.
25 years have passed, yet the weight of that morning remains as real to us now as it was then.
We remember the 343 members of the FDNY
who ran toward danger when every instinct in creation cried out to run away,
who climbed when others descended, who gave the whole of their lives in the space of a single morning,
whose names are etched not only in bronze, but in the hearts of this city.
We remember the more than 2,900
souls taken that day, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, neighbors and strangers who became family in grief.
We hold their memory as sacred trust.
And we remember, too, the hundreds who did not fall on September 11th, but in the years since, who breathed in the poison of those broken towers
as they searched, as they served, as they stayed.
Their deaths came slower, but their sacrifice was no less complete.
Lord, let this city never separate those names from the 343, nor from the more than 2,900.
They are one line of the fallen.
Written across 25 years instead of a single day.
We ask for your comfort upon every family still carrying this loss, that they would feel even now that their loved one's sacrifice is not forgetting
forgotten by this city, this nation, or you.
Grant courage to those who still serve in this city's firehouses, precincts, and rescue companies.
Even those today who serve in city government, who carry forward the same willingness to do what's right, to run toward danger for the sake of a stranger.
Grant us the living, the resolve to honor these lives, not only in remembrance, but how we care for one another still.
May your peace rest, rule, and abide with each one of us.
We ask this in your holy name.
Amen.