Churches

The murder of Nazish Norani late in the evening on Tuesday, August 16, happened one block away from St. John’s Church in Boonton. Our driveway was sealed with crime tape. Morris County’s Criminal Investigation and several news vans were parked in front of our church for a week.

While September 11 will forever conjure up images of the terrorist attacks of 2001, that date has another association for the congregation of St. Barnabas’ Church in Newark. For on September 11, 1961, an interracial group of 27 Episcopal priests boarded a bus in New Orleans, and headed north to General Convention held in Detroit. En route this group, known as the “Prayer Pilgrimage,” made history by ending segregation in all bus and train terminals throughout the South.

When Leroy May was searching for a way to honor his wife’s memory with a meaningful tribute, he did not have to look further than the parish hall at All Saints’ Church in Millington. Both Leroy and his wife, Delano, had been members of the congregation for many years. And since her retirement, Delano had played a very active role in the life of the parish.

Editor’s Note: Whether it’s traveling to Panama to improve the living conditions at a companion diocese or driving to a local soup kitchen to feed the homeless, members of the Diocese of Newark are discovering ministries around the world or around the corner. And sometimes a ministry can find you, no travel required, because it’s been within your heart forever. Such is the case with Mary McManus, who founded a ministry for kids with special siblings. Here is her story.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once penned the verse, “For bells are the voice of the church, for they have tones that touch and search the heart of the young and old.” With the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on our nation upon us, that passage is especially poignant to those at All Saints’ Episcopal Parish in Hoboken, as that congregation takes time to remember the day, to honor the memory of those lost, and to continue to rebuild their lives.