Christie Attends Newark Church Service to Mark Sandy Anniversary

Gov. Chris Christie marked the one-year anniversary of Superstorm Sandy in Newark Tuesday, attending an ecumenical “statewide prayer service” at New Hope Baptist Church.

“On this anniversary, leading up to it, it was the governor, Chris Christie, who reached out to the faith community and said, ‘On this anniversary before I do anything, we need to pray about it,’” said Pastor Joe Carter, one of a number of clerics who spoke during the morning service as Christie sat in a front pew.

Christie, who is running for reelection next week, did not speak during the service.

“A year ago, this state was filled with people who ran toward that act,” said Rabbi Clifford Kulwin of B’Nai Abraham temple in Livingston, Christie’s hometown. “People who did so by virtue of an official position, people who did so by virtue of a responsibility in a voluntary or organization or a civil position, people who did so simply because there was something they could do to make things better for the all, and that was a responsibility they felt with utter and complete compulsion.”

“The Koran says with every difficulty, there is ease. And that brings to our mind a familiar story of Job in the Koran,” said Imam Mustafa El-Amin of Newark’s Masjid Ibrahim mosque. “So we pray to God to give us the patience of Job, who lost everything. Unimaginable. But through his faith and his patience, and he didn’t even see it coming, his faith and his patience, his endurance, caused him to get everything that he lost, plus more.”

Sandy’s high winds struck in North Jersey by midday on the 29th, causing widespread power outages and damaging homes due to falling tree limbs and other debris, and causing parts of the Ironbound near the Passaic River to flood. In the immediate aftermath, the storm left virtually the entire city without power, with some parts of Newark not seeing electricity restored for weeks.