Rev. Lyndon Harris Receives "Blessed are the Peacemakers" Award
December 1, 2004
The World Council of Churches (WCC) has honored Fr, Lyndon Harris with its "Blessed are the Peacemakers" award.
After Sept. 11, 2001, Fr. Lyndon Harris oversaw the massive interfaith relief effort at St. Paul's Chapel in New York. From September 11, 2001 until June 2002, over 5000 volunteers from faith communities across the world helped participate in the recovery effort, offering food and fellowship to 14,000–15,000 rescue workers from Ground Zero.
Since the closing of the site, Fr. Harris has launched the The Sacred City Project, a foundation that will reconvene the leaders and members of these diverse faith communities to re-imagine the city and to dream about new possibilities for the future together. The Sacred City Project is intended to employ religious commitment and good will to map out a strategy for peaceful coexistence and mutual respect among religions as we work together for the betterment of our city. An important goal of this project will be building or adapting space for an interfaith sacred space at Ground Zero.
Fr. Harris now travels internationally speaking to churches, civic groups, and academic institutions about re-imagining the church in a post-9/11 world. Prior to 9/11, he instituted a pilot program bringing alternative worship services to St. Paul's. He serves as the spiritual advisor to Trinity Church, Morrisana in the South Bronx's inaugural program to bring Hip-Hop masses back to the South Bronx, the home of hip-hop.
Currently, Fr. Harris is a Th.D. candidate in Systematic Theology at General Theological Seminary and is working to create a foundation to explore "Re-imagining and Re-building Lower Manhattan post-9/11" from a spiritual perspective.
