Prayers To Take Place of Events

By Carl MacGowan | STAFF WRITER

September 20, 2001

LaGuardia Community College's graduation ceremonies tonight have been postponed in favor of a vigil to remember those lost in the World Trade Center disaster.

The postponed commencement is one of several previously scheduled events set aside or scaled back as New York searches for ways to deal with the conflicting emotions brought on by the Sept. 11 tragedy.

LaGuardia's graduation, at which hundreds of students were to receive their diplomas, has been rescheduled for Oct. 16. Today, at 5:30 p.m., a "Vigil for Community Dialogue and Remembrance" will be held at the school's Mainstage Theatre, 31-10 Thomson Ave., in Long Island City, beginning with a faculty and student panel discussion on the attack. The discussion will be followed by a candlelight vigil.

A community prayer vigil and candlelight ceremony will also be held at 6:30 p.m. today at Calvary Church, 21st Street and Park Avenue South in Manhattan. A procession is to begin at the church and proceed to the Brotherhood Synagogue at 28 Gramercy Park S.

Also, Saturday's German-American Steuben Parade has been canceled and will be replaced by a prayer service at St. Patrick's Cathedral. Participants in past Steuben parades are among those missing since the Trade Center was hit by a pair of hijacked planes, said parade committee chairman William Hetzler.

Some were firefighters and police officers, others musicians and float sponsors who worked in the Twin Towers, he said.

Cardinal Edward Egan is to lead Saturday's 9:30 a.m. prayer service at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Hetzler said.

The Sept. 30 Chinese Moon Festival in Flushing will be scaled back and will include a vigil in memory of the World Trade Center victims, organizers said. Planned fireworks are canceled. A street fair on the same day is still planned.

Staff writer Bryan Virasami contributed to this story.