Christian artists show compassion for 9/11 victims

THE CHRISTIAN music scene worldwide has joined forces to express its sorrow at the terrorist atrocities in the USA on 11th September. Dozens of initiatives have been launched across America to raise funds for the families of the police officers, fire fighters and emergency workers who lost their lives in the New York tragedy. Typical of the response was the Newsboys, who will be appealing for money at each of their Festival Con Dios autumn concerts. Said the Newsboys frontman Peter Furler, "Every day police, fire and emergency workers risk their lives that we can be secure - with far too little recognition. This is our opportunity to come alongside the families of those heroes who gave their lives to help save others and say thanks. The Bible says, 'Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for another.' Through this, we pay tribute to real heroes."

The tragedy came particularly close to South African band Tree63. To kick off their US tour, the band had arrived in New York City on Monday, September 10th. While in the city, they were planning to do a little sightseeing and had actually scheduled a tour of the World Trade Centre for the following day, Tuesday, September 11th, at 8:30am. But, fortunately, their tour manager decided to sleep in and so they decided to go a bit later. At 9am, one of the band members decided to go and wake him up and that's when they heard about the tragedies.

Songs and recordings in response to the tragedy have begun to appear. In Britain Christian singer/songwriter Charity Quin has written and recorded a single, "Beauty For Ashes". A lengthy extract of Charity's song has been posted on her website, www.charityquin.com In the USA, N-Soul recording artist Gina has recorded a special version of "God Bless America".