Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Sunday Morning

Yankee Stadium to Host Prayer Service

Aired September 23, 2001 - 08:12   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The big story today in New York City is what's taking place in several hours time at Yankee Stadium. Let's check in this morning with Martin Savidge once again. Marty, good morning.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Bill. Security expected to be very tight this afternoon for the prayer service that will take place at Yankee Stadium. It is specifically called a prayer service. In fact, the name of it will be "A Prayer For America."

It begins about seven hours from now. Actually, there was a pre- service, if you can call it that, that will start at 2:30 in the afternoon, Eastern time. The event will last for two hours and it will be led by Oprah Winfrey and James Earl Jones. There will be readings by religious leaders from a number of different faiths. It will be Catholic and Protestant and Muslim and Sikh, as well as others as well.

And, on top of that, there will be the music. You will have classic music and then you will also have modern day music. Bette Middler will be performing, Lee Greenwood will be performing. Placido Domingo, the Harlem Boys and Girls Choir will also be performing, and that is just naming some of the participants.

This is a ticket-only event and that means you have to have a ticket to get in, obviously. Considering the number of families here that are grieving, the number of missing, you could expect that their representatives and the families themselves would go a long way to fill Yankee Stadium. We're told there are about 60,000 seats.

There have been tickets, though, made available to the general public and they were quickly consumed. And there are also alternate viewing sites that have been setup. Over in Brooklyn, on Coney Island, and at a baseball park on Staten Island.

There also had been talked about earlier in the week as a memorial service, maybe to be held at Central Park. The Mayor of New York said that wasn't appropriate, the time isn't quite right yet. People are still grieving, the search and recovery effort still ongoing, plus security at such an open-air venue would be very difficult to contemplate with so many tied up at the World Trade Center site.

Yankee Stadium has seen a lot over the years, a lot of celebration. Clearly, though, it has never seen anything like what it will see later today -- Bill.

HEMMER: All right, Marty.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com