ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the ways in which the nascent war on terror colonized the sacred space of St Paul's Cathedral, London, for a Service of Remembrance with the American Community in the United Kingdom (UK), on 14 September 2001. It argues that, although most of the parties involved in organizing the service sincerely believed that they had crafted a political event to enable grieving and provide comfort, the service articulated a geopolitical narrative. The chapter demonstrates, in the context of national services of commemoration, religion is also geopolitically significant in the UK. Exploring the geopolitics of the service, the chapter argues that the actual service illustrates Butler's hierarchy of grief in a form of remembering that leaned towards Edkins' conception of trauma securitization rather than its critical politicization. It also explores the geopolitical imagination enacted in the service. The geopolitical interpretation of the service was precisely how the service was understood in the media.