Beliefnet website

[valaya]

Dear Member of the Beliefnet Family,

 

I wanted to first profusely thank those of you who contributed prayers to our prayer circles. The

extraordinary outpouring of love - from across the faiths and across the world - has been moving,

inspirational, helpful and hopeful. If you haven't already, I recommend you visit here: http://www.beliefnet.com/tlrd.asp?lnkpid=203&lnkid=150

 

Blessedly, the staff here at Beliefnet, and our families, are all safe, though we all have friends and family

who have been touched by this tragedy. One of our beloved co-workers, MJ Weber, is married to a NY police

officer and her brother is an emergency medical service worker. Both, thankfully, are safe but they lost

many, many friends, and need your prayers. The fire squad in my Brooklyn neighborhood lost more than half its

men; Tony Uphoff, our CEO, says about 40 people in his town of Manhasset are gone. Those of us with kids are

having to explain why some of their classmates no longer have mommies or daddies.

 

Our offices are on 23rd street in Manhattan so we could see the smoke and fire billowing. The bus-stops along

this street are now covered with those hand-made missing-people posters, with their tragically precise physical descriptions ("small mole above right side of upper lip"). By Thursday of last week, the wicked smell

- vapors from the cloud that was the World Trade Center - had drifted over our offices.

 

I'm sure you will forgive us for a number of glitches that have hit our site. The company that provides us

with our internet connection was based near the World Trade Center and was wiped out, though we believe, as of

now, that the workers there are ok. Our phone service has been intermittent. We are working through these

things as quickly as possible but there will be some irregularities on the site and with our daily newsletters

for a while.

 

Mostly, I wanted to write to you because I believe that in addition to what you're already undoubtedly doing,

there is one other way you can help. People are flooding Beliefnet to talk, gain wisdom, and gain support.

Please, if there is anything from your own spiritual tradition - or anything that you've experienced -- that

you think could comfort someone else, post it in this discussion thread:

http://www.beliefnet.com/tlrd.asp?lnkpid=204&lnkid=151

It could be a prayer, a poem, a passage from a sacred text, an inspirational story, a comment from a child, an

image, a memory -- anything that might help.

 

In addition, we are establishing a "Sermon Archive" of sermons, homilies, dharma talks and messages from

spiritual leaders around the country. If you've heard of any great ones - or delivered any - please post them here:

http://www.beliefnet.com/tlrd.asp?lnkpid=205&lnkid=152

 

Beliefnet is also going to produce a book, with Rodale Press, tentatively called "From the Ashes: A Spiritual

Response to the Attack on America" which will offer spiritual wisdom from many faith traditions and ordinary

individuals. If there's anything that you think ought to be in this book - something that struck you as

spiritually significant, wise, helpful or thought-provoking - please post it here:

http://www.beliefnet.com/tlrd.asp?lnkpid=206&lnkid=153. The profits from this book will go to charity and

relief efforts.

 

And, of course, if you are looking for more direct ways to help, you may get some ideas from our how-to-help

resource page:

http://www.beliefnet.com/tlrd.asp?lnkpid=207&lnkid=155

 

One final thought. An ugly anti-Muslim backlash has already begun. We at Beliefnet - a multifaith community

dedicated to the notion that understanding someone else's religion can only strengthen one's own - believe

that those of us who are not Muslim have a moral obligation to learn as much as possible about Islam, and to

be teachers in our communities: http://www.beliefnet.com/tlrd.asp?lnkpid=208&lnkid=154

 

We hope and pray that you and your family and friends are safe and well.

 

With deepest regards and respect,

Steven Waldman

Editor-in-Chief & Co-Founder

 

(Here is a link http://www.beliefnet.com/tlrd.asp?lnkpid=208&lnkid=154 to a page that gathers all the articles

we've done so far)