Twenty-five years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, former Ground Zero priest and author Lyndon Harris will lead a public conversation in Charleston examining a question that has become increasingly urgent for survivors, responders and the nation itself:
How should we remember 9/11 now?
“The Future of Our Past: The 25th Anniversary of 9/11 and the Continuing Challenges to Healing” will be held Thursday, Aug. 27, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Circular Congregational Church in Charleston. The event is presented in partnership with Buxton Books and the Sophia Institute and is free and open to the public. Attendees can learn more at lyndonharris.com.
Harris was serving as an Episcopal priest in lower Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001, and was at the foot of the South Tower of the World Trade Center when the second plane struck it. In the days that followed, he initiated a food service for first responders that grew into a full-scale relief ministry at St. Paul’s Chapel, directly across from Ground Zero.
But standing at the foot of the collapsing South Tower on the morning of 9/11, he had no idea that his greatest struggles, and those of many others, would not arrive until after the smoke cleared: physical illnesses, trauma, grief, depression and questions about how to live fully again.
At the Charleston event, Harris will combine firsthand stories and photos from Ground Zero with insights from his later work in forgiveness and trauma recovery. He will also consider how trauma and disaster affect other communities and how forgiveness, as a public health benefit, might offer possible strategies for healing.
“Every community has its own Ground Zero,” Harris said. “Charleston has become known around the world for extraordinary acts of grace and forgiveness after unspeakable violence. But forgiveness is not a single heroic act. It is a daily practice. It asks not only how we remember tragedy, but how we refuse to let tragedy become our identity.”
“My hope is not simply to tell the story of Ground Zero,” Harris said, “but to explore what every community eventually faces: how we remember honestly, grieve deeply, and still choose a future that is not defined by our wounds.”
Harris is the author of the newly released memoir, Forgiveness at Ground Zero: A Journey of Service, Loss, and Redemption After 9/11, published by Bloomsbury Academic. The book recounts his experiences during and after the attacks, including the personal consequences of his Ground Zero service and his eventual journey toward healing. Books will be available for purchase at the event through Buxton Books or may be purchased online at buxtonbooks.com.
The Aug. 27 program is intended not simply as a commemoration, Harris said, but as a community conversation about forgiveness and repair.