Gaffney Native Turned NYC Priest Shares 9/11 Story

Rev. Lyndon Harris

By: Graeme Moore | WSPA
Published: August 25, 2011

The Reverend Lyndon Harris said he was going to help -- even if it meant he would die.

It was Sept. 11, 2001, and the newly-named priest at St. Paul's Chapel in New York City was at a meeting when he heard a loud crack.

"We had no idea what it was. We heard sirens. But you know it's New York City -- you hear this all the time," Harris recalls.

But when he saw burning papers begin floating past his office window he knew something wasn't right. He began running toward the commotion when he heard the second bang.

"In my peripheral vision I saw the fire ball. I wasn't looking up. I was looking at the people running towards me who were screaming and bleeding," he remembers.

At that point the smoke and debris forced Harris to turn around and run the other way, but not for long. St. Paul's Chapel is directly across the street from the World Trade Centers and within the first few days, the church became a refuge for first responders.

"We did over half of a million meals in eight and a half months. We had massage therapists, we had chiropractors and grief counselors, podiatrists working around the clock."

The wrought iron gates outside of St. Paul's became a public memorial with hanging canvasses where people signed notes of encouragement and notes of grief. For a church that had struggled to find a congregation, St. Paul's was all of a sudden one of the most important in all of Manhattan.

"It was one of the greatest blessings of my life because I saw what the church can be, and what the church can be is an effective, powerful partner in healing the world," he said.

Harris has since left St. Paul's and is running the non-profit "Gardens of Forgiveness," an organization which aims to promote healing and reconciliation throughout the world.

But the pictures and canvasses and other artifacts from Harris's ministry at St. Paul's have become an exhibit in his hometown of Gaffney at the Cherokee County History and Arts Museum.

It is free and open to the public and will run between August 26 - September 17.