Berkeley Faithful Observe Remembrance
of Last Year's Terror Attacks

BERKELEY -- As the sun set on a long day of remembrance and grief across America, nearly 200 Berkleyeans offered up prayers of peace, hope and love last night at Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center Park at a community gathering to mark the one-year anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks.

Holding illuminated tealights in paper cups, spread in a semi-circle around the park amphitheater, the residents heard prayers and sermons from a diverse array of city clergy who had insisted that the gathering be spiritual in nature, not political.

?Everyone is here with the intention of praying for peace. This is not political,? said First Congregational Church Minister-in-Training and Event Co-Coordinator Jennifer Butner.

For Butner, the goal of the vigil was simple: ?We are here to have a prayerful memorial,? she said. ?It is important that all members of all faithful communities come together today.?

And come together they did. The ceremony was a colorful celebration of the many faiths that thrive throughout Berkeley. Leaders of the First Congregational Church spoke. The choir of Trinity Methodist church sang a hymn. A minister of the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California read from the first chapter of the Koran. Buddhist monks from the Tibetan Association of Northern California joined in a low, haunting harmony to pray that the dead would find happy afterlives.

?It?s a soothing sound,? said Tibetan Youth Congress President Topden Tsering, of the chanting. ?It makes you realize that everything does not have to be handled with war, but with human intelligence and human compassion.?

But even amid the tranquility of the ceremony, there was tension. Pastor Rodney Yee, of the Berkeley Chinese Community Church prayed, in his address, for the souls of the September 11th terrorists. ?Let us pray to the Divine to convert those who have perpetuated terror,? Yee said.

Tricia Toews, a registered nurse with Kaiser Permanente who considers herself ?spiritual, but not religious? felt conflicted after Yee?s prayer.

?I want to feel at peace with everyone despite what [the terrorists] did,? said Toews. ?It?s very difficult, but I would like to be at that place of forgiveness.?

Despite the tension, Jennifer Butner felt that the ceremony was a success. ?I was pleased by the challenge that [Yee?s] prayer posed to me,? she said. ?It pushed me into a good place, a place of compassion.?