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Syracuse University’s Remembrance and Lockerbie Scholars gathered at the Place of Remembrance for the annual Remembrance Week’s opening candlelight vigil, commemorating the lives lost during the 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 bombing.

To begin the ceremony, this year’s 35 Remembrance Scholars and two Lockerbie Scholars recited the names of the 270 victims of the bombing. Each Remembrance Scholar wore a pin with a name and portrait of SU students who died while flying home from a semester abroad. The two Lockerbie Scholars represented the 11 Lockerbie, Scotland residents who died as a result of the crash.

Scholars stood in a half circle facing attendees and stepped forward one by one to recite the victims’ names. Following the recitation, which lasted approximately 15 minutes, attendees listened to musical performances and prayers before lighting candles to honor those killed in the attack and subsequent crash.

Sophia Moore, a Remembrance Scholar and senior studying sociology and television, radio and film, said she considered being part of the ceremony an honor. She said that, in her role, she feels responsible to commemorate the students whose futures were taken from them.

“To be able to represent somebody whose life was taken in such a senselessly tragic way, it really hits your heart in a way that nothing else I’ve ever done has impacted me,” Moore said.

Throughout the week, Moore will represent Wendy Lincoln, who was a student in SU’s College of Visual and Performing Arts. Moore said she shares Lincoln’s love of photography, and this connection gives her a great sense of pride.

After the reading of victims’ names, SU junior Ava Krauss performed “Méditation” from the late 19th-century opera Thaïs.

Remembrance Scholar Tabitha Hulme, a senior studying public health and health humanities, said the piece symbolized spiritual transformation and inner peace. She asked those assembled to quietly reflect on the lives lost during the bombing as Krauss played the piece.

After Krauss’ performance, scholars turned on electric candles that remained lit until the ceremony’s conclusion.

“Our community is still grieving,” Hulme said. “It’s in this visceral, lasting sense of grief that we have the privilege to remember, to reflect, knowing that love is the antidote to loss.”

Mahika Mor | Contributing Photographer

Following the recitation, which lasted approximately 15 minutes, attendees listened to musical performances and prayers before lighting candles to honor those killed in the attack and subsequent crash.

Throughout the ceremony, love was a consistent theme for speakers, scholars and community attendees. Rev. Brian Konkol, dean of Hendricks Chapel, offered a nondenominational prayer emphasizing the power of responding to acts of hate with love.

Konkol urged participants to reflect on the Pan Am Flight 103 tragedy and allow it to remind them of the power love has when facing hate. During his prayer, he said even when confronting pain, fear and anger, it’s important to make the conscious decision to love.

“Today … far too many respond to hate with more hate,” Konkol said. “We gather once again in this sacred place, not only to look back and to act forward, but to remember that love is the way.”

After the ceremony, Moore said this cohort of scholars is uniquely positioned to represent and advocate for the future of the Remembrance and Lockerbie Scholars program. She said her group would be “ferocious” as they connected with the university community throughout the week.

This year’s Remembrance Week comes about three weeks after SU’s decision to not select two Lockerbie Scholars for the 2025-26 academic year.

Remembrance Week programming will resume on Wednesday afternoon when Remembrance Scholars hold their annual 35-minute “Sitting in Solidarity” vigil on the Shaw Quadrangle.

Disclaimer: Sophia Moore previously worked for The Daily Orange. She did not influence the editorial content of this article.

Published on October 20, 2024 at 10:30 pm

Contact Duncan: digreen@syr.edu