Twenty years on

"The city is left in ruins, its gate is battered to pieces..." Isaiah 24. 12

9/11 is one of those days when those old enough to remember know exactly where they were, as pictures flashed across our TV screens and we watched in disbelief as those aircraft ploughed into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre; then their collapse and the mayhem on the ground which followed. The world changed on that day; and not only on a global scale but for many individuals too. I was at Amport House, the joint services chaplaincy centre, preparing to leave the Royal Navy to take up a missionary posting in Sri Lanka. Over the months that followed my own plans changed, as I swapped the golden beaches of Sri Lanka for the rainswept mountains of Wales and answered the call to stay in the military and volunteer for a specialist unit which soon took me to another mountainous nation which has recently been much in the news.

We all have our stories. Sometimes we should tell them. On other occasions it's best just to listen. Today we pause and reflect...