WASHINGTON, 12 September 2003 — Marking what he called simply the anniversary of “a sad and terrible day,” President Bush attended an early-morning prayer service yesterday followed by a moment of silence at the moment the first terrorist-hijacked plane struck the World Trade Center two years ago.

Bush and his wife Laura sat in the front pew at St. John’s Church across from the White House. It was a beautiful, cloudless day, much like Sept. 11, 2001, the day that an unsuspecting America suffered the cruelest attack ever on its own soil.

Secretary of State Colin Powell and FBI Director Robert Mueller read from scriptures, along with White House deputy chief of staff Harriett Miers.

Later, Bush and his wife, alongside Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne, emerged from the White House to join more than 1,000 members of his staff on the grass of the South Lawn. Chefs, maids, groundskeepers and workmen stood with members of the military and senior officials in suits and dresses.

The president bowed his head at 8:46 a.m., EDT — the moment the first of the hijacked planes struck the World Trade Center — then the foursome turned without speaking and returned inside. Bush and his wife held hands as they walked.

Leaving the church, Bush described his thoughts. “Today our nation remembers. We remember a sad and terrible day, September the 11th, 2001. We remember lives lost. We remember the heroic deeds. We remember the compassion and the decency of our fellow citizens on that terrible day,” he said.

“Also today is a day of prayer. We pray for the husbands and wives and moms and dads and sons and daughters and loved ones of those who still grieve and hurt. We pray for strength and wisdom. We thank God for the many blessings of this nation, and we ask His blessings on those who especially hurt today.”

In the afternoon, the president, still accompanied by the first lady, was to travel a few miles to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center for a private session with soldiers being treated there for wounds suffered in Iraq.

On a day reserved for deliberately low-key remembrances by the president, the White House even scotched yesterday the normal daily on-camera briefing with Bush’s chief spokesman, Scott McClellan, in observance of Patriot Day, the name given to Sept. 11 by presidential proclamation.

Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld presided over a somber ceremony at the Pentagon and Solictor General Ted Olson, whose wife, Barbara, died in the attack there, told Justice Department employees that an unrelenting fight against terrorism is the best way to honor the memory of those who perished.

“Their suffering and deaths must fuel our dedication to stamp out this cancer,” Olson said.

Attorney General John Ashcroft said the United States is making “quiet, steady progress in the war against terror” and thanked Justice Department workers for their efforts in that battle.

“In the war against terror, we will not falter and we will not fail,” Ashcroft said.

It is a time, Bush said Wednesday, to honor the victims’ families, those who still “feel a grief that does not end.” It is also a time, he said, for the rest of the country to remember how it “felt the anger and the sense of loss” on that day two years ago that 3,016 people died in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania at the hands of terrorist hijackers.

The president’s recognition of the anniversary this year is markedly more subdued than last, when he participated in memorial events at all three crash sites and engaged in tearful embraces with family members. Aides said the new approach was in keeping with the president’s view that the day now should be solely about the families.

So instead of Bush, Cheney was representing the administration in New York.