About three dozen people took part in the city's only publicized remembrance service on Sept. 11, held Sunday night at First Presbyterian Church.
The service marked the 15th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
The Rev. Mark Kiekhaefer of Evangelical Free Church read Psalm 46, the same reading as when he and others put together a community service shortly after the attacks. The verse begins with: "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."
For Rob Erickson, senior pastor at First Presbyterian, the 9/11 attacks had personal connections, and at times he choked up when speaking about it during the 50-minute service.
"I remember where I was when 2,606 were killed in the twin towers in New York City," he said. "That's where my son lives. I know where I was when 125 people where killed in the Pentagon. That's where my other son works. I remember where I was when 40 passengers were killed when Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania because they didn't want the plane flying into the Capitol. That's where my third son lives, Pennsylvania."
He said even this far away from the attacks, people here still are connected, and people are changed as a result of that day.
"We are gathered here to remember the lives of the people who died" as well as the police, firefighters and other public safety officials who ran into the twin towers, not away from them.
"We believe in a God who brings light out of the darkness," he said. God, he said, was with us 15 years ago, and is with us now.
He stressed the service wasn't to celebrate the attacks, but to worship and remember. Some people, he said, say it's time to move on from the attacks. But he said they have united us with other parts of the world that had already seen routine terrorism.
Erickson said they suffered with us, just as we suffer with them. Suffering, he said, has no boundaries and also unites us with Christ, who taught his followers that, at times, people would hate and ridicule them. But he said Christ taught them to respond with love.
"It sounds crazy to me," Erickson said. "That's why I say, I don't know the answer, because I can't do the answer the way Jesus does. But I know the one who I trust. I trust the Lord who made heaven" and the God who died for us.
A table near the front of the church had candles on both ends and a picture of a light shining out of the top of the Empire State Building.
Attendees held hands at the end of the service, which was followed by a dinner.