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On Tuesday evening, Syracuse University community members gathered at Hendricks Chapel for its annual Service of Commemoration to celebrate the lives of the 85 members of the SU and SUNY ESF communities who have died over the past year.

The service provides an opportunity to pause and acknowledge loss, and also to “be placed on a collective path for shared renewal,” according to Hendricks Chapel’s website.

SU held its first Service of Commemoration in 2016 to align with SU Remembrance Scholars’ “Look Back, Act Forward” commitment, a motto established to raise awareness about the victims lost in the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing, which killed the 35 SU Abroad students onboard.

“We have 25,000 students and more than 5,000 faculty and staff on this hill,” Chancellor Kent Syverud said. “We come together today to honor 85 members of that community who we have lost over the past year. We reflect on the ways they touched our lives and contributed to our community.”

Dean of Hendricks Chapel Brian Konkol opened the service by stressing the significance of gathering and togetherness as people grapple with the losses to the community.

“Thank you for showing up for each other. Thank you for supporting each other, for seeking to be made new alongside each other. Thank you for reminding all of us that the clouds do clear. The sun does rise and winter does turn into spring, today and forever, because we are all in this together,” Konkol said.

Konkol said he hopes spending the time together to honor the lives lost will “nurture the spirit and soul” of the campus community.

After the annual lighting of candles in remembrance, Chancellor Kent Syverud spoke of the losses to the SU and ESF community and read the names of faculty, staff, trustees and honorary degree holders who died over the course of the recent year.

“This campus is different and better because so many of the individuals we remember today were part of the Orange community. They became our friends, our colleagues, our confidants,” Syverud said. “May they never be forgotten.”

ESF President Joanie Mahoney followed Syverud’s address, and highlighted the personal impact the losses had on her as a member and leader in the community. She explained the personal significance of the service resulting from her relationships with those being commemorated, saying she knows the “extraordinary contributions” they have made to SU, ESF and the broader community of Syracuse.

Several faith leaders of the SU-ESF community also spoke during the service. Campus Rabbi Ethan Bair, Lutheran Chaplain Rev. Gail Riina and Assistant Muslim Chaplain Dzemal Crnkić all delivered prayers and sermons specific to their respective religious traditions and practices.

Crnkić recited the Ayatul Kursi from the Qur’an, which he identified as “the greatest of all verses.” He said it carries immense power and serves as a means to seek refuge, direction, sustenance, blessing, mercy, paradise and more from God.

The service concluded with the placement of two ceremonial wreaths at the bottom of the chapel steps.

Konkol returned to the stage and offered a concluding message of hope to attendees.

“May the words we have heard, the melodies we have received and the lives we remember continue to nourish your soul and ignite your spirit so that whatever you are and however you are, you may receive strength in the midst of sorrow, and guidance in the midst of grief,” Konkol said. “Let us depart in peace.”

Published on March 22, 2023 at 1:57 am