9-11 FDNY chaplain to speak in Cedar Rapids

The Rev. B.J. Weber vividly remembers watching a second plane hit the south tower of the World Trade Center as he stood on Eighth Avenue in New York City the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

“I can still see it today, like slow motion,” Weber, 64, says. “It was the painful, painful reality that we were being attacked.”

Weber, a Dubuque native and  founder and president of New York Fellowship, an interdenominational ministry, will speak next weekend in Cedar Rapids about his experience as a chaplain to New York firefighters in the wake of the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

“These men became friends,” he says in a telephone interview from his New York City office. “I buried their friends and grieved with their widows and children.”

He also will share his personal experiences of 9-11 and its aftermath.

After the towers collapsed, he picked up his children from school. His son, Max, was a junior and his daughter, Rachel, a freshman in high school.

Rachel spent the next day at her close friend's home, calling hospitals in search of her friend's mother.

“Her mother was on the 102nd floor of Tower 2 and she didn't make it home,” Weber says. “It was a traumatic experience for my daughter.”

As the chaplain of the New York Yankees, Weber counseled players, including third baseman Randy Velarde and his wife, who stayed with the Webers for a few days after 9-11.

During this time, two policemen asked Weber to identify the body of Jim Ford, a businessman and recovering alcoholic who was a member of Weber's fellowship.

Ford had a card in his wallet that said, “In case of emergency, call Jesus Christ. If he is not available, call the Rev. B.J. Weber.”

When New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani set up a bereavement center just blocks from Weber's house, Weber was the first minister to offer his services.

“People came to me with their stories,” he says.

Asking family members for items such as toothbrushes and hairbrushes for DNA evidence to identity victims was a particularly difficult task for Weber.

Realizing the sacrifice the city's firefighters made to rescue people in the Twin Towers, Weber visited his neighborhood firehouse, Engine Company 16/Ladder Company 7 in Manhattan, which lost seven men Sept. 11, 2001. He asked the firefighters for forgiveness for not recognizing their everyday efforts before 9-11.

“I took it for granted that these guys show up,” he says.

He then counseled them and their families by starting a grief recovery group.

Every year on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks, Weber and his wife, Sheila, lead a service at the firehouse.

As the 10-year anniversary approaches, Weber is reflective on how things have changed - and remained the same.

“It's hard to get your arms around it,” he says.

The children of families he counseled have grown - the babies are now 10 years old and children are adults.

But the same sorrow and unrest in the world still remains, he says.

When Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9-11 terrorist attacks was killed May 1 in Afghanistan by U.S. forces, there were open celebrations throughout New York City.

But the firefighters at Engine Company 16/Ladder Company 7 didn't take part in the revelry.

“There was no dancing, no high-fives,” Weber says. A firefighter solemnly told him, “we don't celebrate revenge.”

“That was just the spirit of the firehouse,” he says. “There was very little of the vengeance stuff going on.”

Peace and reconciliation are difficult to achieve, but should be the ultimate goal, Weber says.

“We go from war to war,” he says. “Peace has to come out of our hearts. That's where profound change takes place.”

Hear Weber speak

What: An Evening in the Park with the Rev. B.J. Weber, president of New York Fellowship

When: 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday, June 11

Where: Parkview Pavilion at Jones Park, 201 Wilson Ave. SW, Cedar Rapids

What: The Rev. B.J. Weber speaks to Growing Together Group

When: 10:30 a.m. to noon, Sunday, June 12

Where: Room 200, First Assembly of God, 3233 Blairs Ferry Rd. NE, Cedar Rapids

Contact: Linda Smith, (319) 540-4424 or jimmyvan62@msn.com