Memorial Services

Swiss Air Flight 111: 2 September 1998

Memorial services help cope with grief

-- By Joel Jacobson, staff reporter, Louise Surette and Tom Mason

Jean Chretien will be among those who gather this week in Nova Scotia to pay their respects to victims of the Swissair Flight 111 disaster.

The prime minister and his wife Aline will attend a non-denominational service in remembrance of the crash victims Wednesday at 6 p.m. on the grounds of the East St. Margarets Elementary School in Indian Harbour.

A memorial service will also be held Thursday at 7 p.m. at St. Paul's Anglican Church on Argyle Street in Halifax.

Other services were held around the province on the weekend to help both Nova Scotians and relatives of the victims deal with their pain.

At a memorial service at Beth Israel Synagogue in Halifax, Rabbi Saul Aronov emphasized the high educational, philanthropic and other goals of the 229 passengers and crew of Swissair Flight 111.

"They travelled on a high plain," he said, stressing that God wants us all to carry on those high ideals while travelling through life.

"Even though human life is, in the best of times, precarious, these people were rising in their purposes."

With 10 members of victims' families in attendance, along with a congregation of more than 250, Victor Goldberg, president of the Atlantic Jewish Council, offered condolences to all nationalities and religious groups who suffered through this loss.

In Chester on Sunday, Air Canada pilots, local government officials and fire and rescue personnel were among hundreds of people who packed St. Stephen's Anglican Church in a service of witness and remembrance for the victims of Swissair Flight 111.

In his homily, Rev. M. Allen Gibson said courage was the first word that came to mind - the courage of the flight crew, of grieving family members, of rescuers, and of Nova Scotians caught up in the tragedy.

In the past few days, he said, courage has become a common element for everyone involved.

He asked worshippers to remember the Swissair passengers as individuals of stature in industry, science and the arts, adding that individuals perish only when their work, for lack of a successor, dies with them.

Rev. Sean Taylor of St. Stephen's, Rev. Daniel Greene of Chester United Baptist Church, Father Brian Murphy of St. Augustine's Parish and Rev. Phillip Williams of Tancook Island also participated in the service.

On Sunday afternoon, St. Mary's Basilica on Spring Garden Road in Halifax held a Roman Catholic mass in memory of those who died.

Msgr. Martin Currie said the Archdiocese of Halifax sent its condolences to the bishops of New York and Switzerland after the crash.

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Halifax Herald, Halifax, N.S. - 8 September 1998

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