Richmond faith leaders, firefighters mark 9/11

The Rev. Jim Somerville, senior pastor of Richmond's First Baptist Church, looked around, smiled and said he felt like he was in the middle of a bad joke that starts something like, "A Baptist preacher, a Jewish rabbi and a Muslim imam …"

But Somerville was sitting between a rabbi and an imam — Rabbi Ben Romer of Congregation Or Ami and Imam Ammar Amonette of the Islamic Center of Virginia — Sunday afternoon at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in downtown Richmond. Yet, instead of a joke, Somerville said he actually felt he was in the middle of one of the more positive developments to come in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"We've been getting to know each other over the last few years," said Somerville. "We've shared meals together. I bump into the imam sometimes when I'm out jogging. I see Ben at the Jewish Community Center where I work out. It feels like a friendship is growing between us, and that's remarkable for a Baptist minister."

That's the essence of the Faith Forum of Greater Richmond, a consortium of religious leaders across central Virginia who began meeting this year with a goal of moving beyond mere dialogue into what the Rev. D. Wallace Adams-Riley, rector of St. Paul's Episcopal, which hosted Sunday's event, described as the forum's purpose: "To prove that people of different faiths can live, laugh and learn together."

The Faith Forum was one of numerous wide-ranging events in the Richmond area Sunday inspired by the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

Firefighters climbed up and down 22 floors in the SunTrust Bank building in downtown Richmond five times Sunday morning — 110 stories in all — in memory of the 343 firefighters who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks on the 110-story tall World Trade Center towers in New York.

"This is something near and dear to our hearts," said Capt. Bill Beatley of the Richmond Fire Department, his face glistening with perspiration after the climb.

He was dressed out in full turnout gear and wore around his neck the tags of two men from the New York Fire Department — Patrick J. Lyons and James M. Gray — who died while trying to save others on 9/11. The tags read: "We will never forget."

Scores of firefighters from Virginia, Tennessee and Pennsylvania made the trek up and down the stairwells in honor of their fallen brothers and sisters.

Many wore their suits and helmets for the climb; some toted air packs as well on their backs, carrying 60 pounds of gear.

"It's a sense of accomplishment," said firefighter Rick Pyle with the Henrico County's Station 6 after signing his name to a "Memorial Stair Climb" banner.

At the University of Richmond, two events marked the anniversary: a blood drive hosted by the Muslim Law Student Association and an ecumenical service at Cannon Memorial Chapel.

The blood drive is part of a nationwide campaign — Muslims for Life 9/11 Remembrance Blood Drive — to collect 10,000 blood donations during September in honor of the victims of 9/11, said Qasim Rashid, president of the Muslim Law Student Association at the UR School of Law. Rashid said the drive was a "resounding success" with 103 donors from "all walks of life and religious traditions."

Across campus, an estimated crowd of 300 gathered to hear readings from Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders, listen to sacred music from Schola Cantorum, the university's student choir, and light candles in memory of the victims of 9/11. The names of eight victims with close university ties – alumni or family members of alumni — were read as a bell tolled for each.

Representing the Muslim faith was Benjamin Smith, a seminary student and intern in the university's chaplain's office who works with Muslim students. He spoke of the "kindness" of organizers of the service who refuse to stereotype Muslims as terrorists.

"That they would invite me … means a lot," said Smith, who also works in the university's facilities department and has painted the interior of the chapel. "That gesture of benevolence isn't lost on us."

At Clover Hill High School in Chesterfield County, the Richmond Symphony presented a 9/11 Commemorative Concert that featured such favorites as Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" and the first movement of Dvorak's "New World Symphony." The large crowd attending the free performance sang along on rousing renditions of the "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "God Bless America."

Back at the Faith Forum at St. Paul's, keynote speaker Thomas A. Silvestri, president and publisher of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, challenged the diverse audience of more than 100 to come together as a community and confront the challenges of the next decade with a well-grounded sense of optimism and hope while making a genuine attempt to know their neighbors.

The religious leaders at the forum said it begins with them.

First Baptist's Somerville said he sees "real hope for our future together as a people of differing faiths."

"I think we can really begin to see … that we have so much more in common than those things that divide us," he said.