Light at Ground Zero: St. Paul's Chapel After 9/11

From the back cover:

"St. Paul's had been spared." It seemed clear to me that if this was true, it was not because we were holier than anyone who died across the street; it was because we now had a big job to do. --The Rev. Lyndon Harris, Associate for Ministries at St. Paul's Chapel

St. Paul's Chapel is an 18th-century Episcopal church in the parish of Trinity Church in Lower Manhattan. It stands less than one hundred yards from the World Trade Center site. This book is a picture essay telling of the relief work carried on at St. Paul's for almost nine months. Many people who saw that the church still stood despite the destruction all around its walls talked about "the miracle of St. Paul's." The real miracle of St. Paul's, displayed in these pages, was the miracle of radical hospitality joined with good will from around the world in a common mission to offer works of goodness in response to the catastrophe of 9/11.

Images of the crumbling buildings flooded our eyes through the various conduits of the media. This book tells a different story. Accented with fragments of prayers and Scripture, these photographs show the love and encouragement offered to the men and women who labored after September 11 in the most difficult and challenging context anyone ever could have imagined.

This story is not just a faith story as told by St. Paul's; it is also an American story dedicated to each and every one of us who has experienced hope after devastation.