Date: September 11, 2026
Lesley, Luke, and I moved to the United States in June 2001. That August, we went to the top of the World Trade Center for dinner in the rotating restaurant, watching the extraordinary panorama of New York unfold around us. Just weeks later, on September 11, the towers were attacked and destroyed.
The event became defining for me in a particular way. I was then Academic Dean at Hartford Seminary, now Hartford International University for Religion and Peace, which was home to the Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations. Around thirty percent of our students were Muslim. For the next six years, much of my ministry focused on Christian-Muslim dialogue. Our witness was to insist that the horror of terrorism must not become a reason for hostility between two great Abrahamic faiths, while also recognizing the political complexity of determining an appropriate response.
As we mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of September 11, we can still learn from those efforts to build understanding amid fear and uncertainty. Above all, we remember the thousands of lives lost, especially the courage and sacrifice of first responders, and we pray for wisdom as we navigate the crises of our own time.
The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Ph.D.
Dean and President of Virginia Theological Seminary and the President of The General Theological Seminary.