New York holds prayer service for victims

09/23/01

By JOEL STASHENKO
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK – The House that Ruth Built became a house of prayer on Sunday, as thousands assembled at Yankee Stadium for an interfaith service for the victims of terrorism.

There was bright sunshine and heavy security at the ballpark in the Bronx. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was careful to call it a prayer service rather than a memorial service, insisting that hope was not lost for some of the 6,333 people missing in the wreckage of the World Trade Center.

But no survivors have been pulled alive from the ruins since the day after the Sept. 11 disaster.

Hosts for the service were Oprah Winfrey and James Earl Jones. The program included prayers led by Cardinal Edward Egan and Imam Izak-El Pasha, and patriotic and inspirational songs led by Bette Midler, Placido Domingo and Lee Greenwood.

Mourners arriving at Yankee Stadium before the service had to run a gantlet of police officers and state troopers checking tickets. No bags, backpacks or coolers were allowed. Police officers were stationed in the stadium's light stanchions.

Small American flags and roses were distributed to worshippers as they arrived. The stadium was bedecked with flowers, and red-white-and-blue bunting. The flags that had stood at half-staff since Sept. 11 were returned to the tops of their poles.

Mourners got cut-rate prices at the Yankee Stadium concession stands: hot dogs normally selling for $3.75 at Yankee games cost $1. Sodas priced at $2.75 sold for $1. No beer was available.

Carlos Rivera, a handyman from the Bronx, said he was on hand to ``pray and to comfort all those people that fell in the tragedy. We are also here to pray for those on the other side.''

Retired nurse's assistant Gloria Rice of Harlem wore a stars-and-stripes bandanna on her head and an American flag on her T-shirt.

``I'm here because I felt it my duty as an American citizen to support the police, the fire workers and so many others trying to help,'' she said.

Meanwhile, the grim work of searching through the Trade Center wreckage continued without interruption in lower Manhattan, and the business of trying to return to a semblance of normal went on throughout the city.

Mayoral candidates stepped up their public schedules Sunday to try to focus distracted voters' attention on Tuesday's rescheduled primary election. Balloting was put off by the attack on Sept. 11, the original Primary Day.

The candidates are lavishing praise on Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's handling of the Trade Center disaster. But they're also trying to convince voters they have the credentials to be his successor in this time of crisis in the city.

Term limits prevent Giuliani from serving a third term.

``No person is irreplaceable,'' said Public Advocate Mark Green, one of the Democratic candidates. ``We are a nation of laws, not men. ... We are bigger than any public official.''