“I just hope that we can come together as a religious community at Harvard to recognize the gravity of what happened last year, but also to give a word of hope for the future based on the knowledge that there are things that transcend the world that can give us hope,” Mulder said.

Between the two sets of readings, members of the University choir will perform a piece that seeks to unite various faiths.

Composed by Carson Cooman ’04, the piece involves texts from Jewish, Christian, Buddhism, Muslim and Baha’i traditions.

“I tried to render the texts in a coherent fashion to make a mosaic that brought them all together,” Cooman said.

Edington said that despite the chaos of move-in, registration and the ongoing Freshman Week, it is important that the community takes time to come together.

It will be in this spirit that the bells of Memorial Church will not ring at 8:46 a.m.—though bells throughout the nation will toll at this time, exactly a year after the first plane hit the North Tower.

Edington said that at Harvard, in contrast, the bells are traditionally reserved for the start of a ceremony and so they will ring, instead, at noon.

The ringing of the church bells will be followed by blasts on a shofar and the call of a muezzin.

“We are part of many communities but this is a time for us all to be together,” Edington said.

Private Reflections

Few Houses have organized special activities beyond the University ceremony, in part because of ongoing move-in efforts.

“I expect our students will join the general body of students in the Yard,” said Eliot House Master Lino Pertile.

Lowell House, however, along with a number of other area institutions, will toll its bells at 8:46 a.m.

Lowell will also show the two-hour PBS documentary “Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero,” which is being rebroadcast nationally tomorrow night, in its Junior Common Room.

Leverett House Master Howard Georgi ’68 said he has planned only informal activities for his students.