Norway Massacre: Historic Church Holds Ceremony to Mourn Victims
NEW YORK – New York City’s historic St. Paul’s Chapel tolled the “Bell of Hope” today in a remembrance ceremony to mourn and honor Norway’s massacre victims.
Norwegian Consul Aslaug Nygard attended the ceremony to ring the bell in honor of the victims.
The ceremony took place at noon Tuesday outside of St. Paul’s Chapel, located directly across from the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan. During the World Trade Center recovery operation following the 9/11 attacks, the Chapel had served a half million hot meals to workers and was seen as a place of hope to city workers.
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Nygard rang the bell five times to honor those who died during Friday’s attacks in Norway.
"The popular reaction to these tragic, horrific actions has been the reaction of love and compassion and peace and flowers and candles and remembrance," Norway Consul Nygard said before striking the bell. "I think there is a strong connection between what this bell symbolizes and also how people in Norway feel right now.”
"We stand together shoulder by shoulder in the darkest of times we as a nation show our neighborly love and show our compassion for the victims their families their friends and the survivors."
The "Bell of Hope" was a gift to New York from the city of London a year after 9/11. The bell has been rung previously for the bombings in London, Madrid, Mumbai, and Moscow; for the Virginia Tech shooting; and on the 9/11 anniversaries.
Norway attacker Anders Behring Breivik killed 76 and injured dozens more on Friday, July 22. The attack started with a bomb blast in the capital Oslo and continued with an hour-long shooting rampage at a camp for Labour Party teens on nearby Utoya Island.
Breivik is currently in custody in Norway and has admitted to the attacks, and claims to have been in contact with other terror cells abroad. Police in Norway are currently investigating footage of the attack, and combing Utoya Island for clues.
