Hendricks Chapel hosts 9/11 remembrance service on 25th anniversary
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The doors to Hendricks Chapel closed at 8:30 a.m., and Frank Caravita, a sophomore ROTC cadet, performed his rendition of the national anthem.
Then, the crowd went silent for 16 minutes.
A word wasn’t spoken until 8:46 a.m. — the time the first plane struck the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. When the moment of silence was finally broken, the chapel’s chimes rang 25 times, representing the 25 years that have passed since the 9/11 attacks.
That’s how the Hendricks Chapel 9/11 Memorial Service began Friday, commemorating the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks when 19 hijackers took control of four commercial airliners, killing thousands. The event was open to the public and livestreamed online.
Rev. Jee Hae Song, a United Methodist chaplain, said the intentional silence was one of the most meaningful and emotional parts of the event.
“If it were any other kind of event, the silence would make it awkward,” Song said. “But in today’s service, it made perfect sense, because the awkwardness was the emotion of the entire event.”
In his opening remarks, Rev. Corey MacPherson, the dean of Hendricks Chapel, told the story of Mychal Judge — a New York Fire Department chaplain who was the first confirmed fatality of the attacks.
“Father Judge’s example reminds us of the sacred call of chaplains, to draw near to people in times of grief, uncertainty and crisis,” MacPherson said.
Music was present throughout the event’s programming. The Syracuse University Brass Ensemble performed “Amazing Grace,” and José Calvar, director of the Hendricks Chapel Choir, sang “Let There Be Peace on Earth” and “It is Well.”
Speakers including Rev. Song, as well as Imam Amir Durić, the assistant dean for religious and spiritual life, and Rabbi Natan Levy, Hendricks’ Jewish chaplain, led attendees in prayer.
Alex Dietrich, SU’s interim chief human resources officer, told a story of how 9/11 changed her and “the rest of the world.” At the time, she was training to become a U.S. Navy aviator.
Her first flight — scheduled on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 — was ultimately canceled. The base had to be secured after former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ordered DEFCON 3, an increased state of military readiness that had been invoked three times prior.
“Without explanation, we were quickly recalled back into the running room,” Dietrich said. “Soon, student pilots and instructors were all huddled around a small television in the corner watching the news. It was excruciating to watch the reporters try to make sense of the chaotic images.”
Rev. Corey MacPherson gives opening remarks during Hendricks Chapel’s 9/11 Memorial Service. Daniel Carson | Contributing Photographer
During the event, Song led prayers in both English and Korean. She said that though it may be new for some audience members, her bilingual approach represented SU’s diversity and solidarity among many different faiths.
“We are all different people,” Song said. “But we’re in solidarity in (the) face of injustice and violence.”
Another bilingual prayer, led by Levy, was delivered in English and Hebrew. At the end of his prayer, Levy blew a shofar, a Jewish ram’s horn, to mark the event and the approaching Jewish New Year.
“It’s apropos to lead into this moment, and a sign of remembrance and mourning for those whose lives were lost,” Levy said.
Father Manny Vasconcelos, the Catholic chaplain at Hendricks Chapel, said memorial services nationwide help connect people across generations to the history of the event.
Vasconcelos compared the 9/11 attacks to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Though he wasn’t alive to experience Kennedy’s death, Vasconcelos recognized it was a similarly defining event for people of his generation.
“Many people mourned his death,” Vasconcelos said. “I know that was a marked moment for many people that I know and care about.”
SU doesn’t host an annual service commemorating 9/11, but the three chaplains said they hope it continues to memorialize the day. Vasconcelos said the chapel typically holds larger anniversary events every five years, meaning another could take place in 2031 for the 30th anniversary.
Levy said he hopes future generations continue to understand the importance of remembering the attacks, even though they never experienced 9/11 themselves.
“It’s important, especially as a person of faith and religion, to have memory and ritual attached to (9/11),” Levy said. “That we’re not just thinking, but we’re also doing.”
Chancellor Mike Haynie, who couldn’t attend the event due to a prior commitment, sent a campuswide email during the service reflecting on the attacks and their continued impact on the SU community 25 years later.
Similar to Dietrich, Haynie was a military officer and teacher at the U.S. Air Force Academy when the planes struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
“Even in that first confused hour, it was clear to me that those students understood that the world they were stepping into had just changed,” Haynie wrote. “Forever.”
