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Episcopal Bishop Robert Fitzpatrick formally presented a historic processional cross — made from a deck plate of the USS Arizona — to the Pearl Harbor Memorial Chapel on Wednesday.
The cross was made by the late Capt. Charles Swanson, a Pearl Harbor Naval shipyard commander in the 1970s. The dark steel cross is shaped to combine the Christian icon and an anchor; it carries an inscription identifying it as made of a deck plate from the Arizona, sunk by Japanese bombers in a surprise attack Dec. 7, 1941.
It had been housed at St. George’s Church, which closed in June 2014. Another cross made from metal off of the USS Arizona, which previously was part of the altar at St. George’s, will be used in a memorial at the Cathedral of St. Andrew, the mother church of the Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii.
“The memory of those who died on Dec. 7, 1941, and of those who worshipped at St. George’s Church will be preserved in these two memorials in living places of worship,” Fitzpatrick said.
The ceremony was held in the memorial chapel at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.