Bayonne to Holds its Annual September 11 Interfaith Memorial Service and Candlelight Vigil
The September 11 City of Bayonne Remembers Committee has announced that the annual Interfaith Memorial Service and Candlelight Vigil honoring the victims of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 will take place on Sunday, September 11, at 7:00 p.m., at the 9-11 Memorial in Harbor View Memorial Park, at the former Military Ocean Terminal (MOT). The service will also honor the victims of the attack on the World Trade Center on February 26, 1993. The memorial is located at the eastern end of the former MOT, which juts out into Upper New York Bay.
Members of the Bayonne Interfaith Clergy will offer prayers, readings, and reflections. Rev. Joseph Barbone, former Pastor of Our Lady of the Assumption Church, will serve as master of ceremonies. The program will include a bagpiper, a trumpeter, color guards from the Bayonne Police and Fire Departments, the Port Authority color guard, the veterans’ color guards from Bayonne, the Knights of Columbus color guard, Girl Scout Troop 327 of Trinity Parish in Bergen Point, Boy Scout Troop 19 of Pope John Paul II Parish (Our Lady of Mt. Carmel), Troop 25 of St. Vincent DePaul Parish, and Troop 27 of Trinity Parish in Bergen Point. Mayor Jimmy Davis will offer brief remarks. Acapella student vocalists from Bayonne High School and the Bayonne Interfaith Inspirational Group will sing. There will be music by the Bayonne High School Marching Band. Taps will be played at the end of the program.
The Bayonne Recreation Division is providing free shuttle bus service for the program on Sunday, September 11, picking up passengers at East 24th Street and Church Lane. This location is near public parking lots. Shuttle service will begin at 5:30 p.m., and will drop off passengers at a parking area on the former MOT until 6:45 p.m. Following the service, at approximately 8:00 p.m., the buses will pick up passengers at the same area for the return trip to East 24th Street and Church Lane. Shuttles will continue to run until all passengers have been returned to East 24th Street, by approximately 9:00 p.m.
Participants who drive directly to the ceremony can park in designated spaces at the former MOT. There are also some parking spaces located next to Harbor View Park.
The September 11 City of Bayonne Remembers Committee was formed following the terrorist attacks in 2001, and organizes the annual memorial service. Artist-sculptor Zurab Tsereteli, a resident of Russia and a native of the Republic of Georgia, designed the 9-11 memorial, “To the Struggle Against World Terrorism,” which he donated as a gift from the Russian Federation to the United States of America. The monument was placed in Harbor View Park where it stands across from the World Trade Center. In 2006, the memorial was dedicated. It bears the names of all of the victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks.
The committee wanted to do something special to memorialize the residents of Bayonne who perished in the terrorist attacks. In 2007, the committee dedicated separate monuments for each of Bayonne’s victims, one who died in the World Trade Center in 1993, two who died on United Airlines Flight 93 in Pennsylvania in 2001, and ten who died in the World Trade Center in 2001. In 2011, the committee dedicated the Twin Towers Steel Monument.
The memorial service will take place rain or shine. For questions about the event, please call Dolores Kelly at 201-823-4890.
