From Deseret News archives:
Faiths unite: Religions blended in wake of Crandall Canyon disaster
The tragedies, she says, haven't driven people to church in droves, but rather made people more reflective.
"Life goes on, so to speak — you hate to say that," Gordon said. "It has made people stop and be grateful for their own blessings."
Wendy Black's husband, Dale "Bird" Black, was one of three people who died Aug. 16 while trying to rescue six miners. Her brother is the Rev. Carl Sitterud, pastor at the Desert Edge Christian Chapel, where families of victims gathered for updates on their loved ones trapped in the mine.
The Rev. Sitterud will be dedicating a monument to the nine men at a private ceremony this month near the sealed mine. He was also asked by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s office to give the opening prayer at a ceremony in September to dedicate another monument near a cemetery in Huntington.
The Rev. Sitterud has seen a difference over the past year in how people approach him.
"People will stop and talk with me now," the Rev. Sitterud said. "The accident has bridged that gap a little bit."
Although the Rev. Sitterud said church attendance could be better, one of the men involved in the rescue effort when three workers were killed Aug. 16 now regularly attends services at Desert Edge.
"He realized at the time that in the blink of an eye life can end," the Rev. Sitterud said. "It made him re-evaluate his life.
"I am thankful he came to Christ," the Rev. Sitterud added. "He's a good man."
Elsewhere in the area there are fresh memorials, including beads and a cross at a bridge about one mile from the mine.
In the days after the Aug. 6 collapse that trapped six miners, whose bodies were never recovered, a community of small towns and cities came together, regardless of what religion anyone practiced.
"When things happen, people do put that aside," Gordon said. "I watched people give generously."
Love was a key ingredient.
"Is the basic part of us loving?" Gordon asked. "Yes, I think it is."
Last September the Rev. Oscar Martinez, a priest from St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Ogden, spoke at a memorial Mass at Mission San Rafael for trapped miners Jose Luis Hernandez and Carlos Payan Villa, who were both born in Mexico but lived in Huntington.
"At this point, the big question ... why? God, why is this happening to them? ... We are not here to explain that. We cannot understand that now ... It takes time to understand," he told those at the mass two miles south of Huntington.
