At a forum at Columbia University marking the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, John McCain and Barack Obama took a break from their increasingly harsh presidential contest to speak with genuine passion about a worthy cause they both share: engaging more Americans in national service.

What was striking about their back-to-back interviews, conducted by Judy Woodruff of PBS’s “NewsHour With Jim Lehrer” and Richard Stengel of Time magazine before 1,000 people in Columbia’s Lerner Hall, was their respectful tone. At one point, Mr. McCain even expressed admiration for Mr. Obama’s work done years ago as a community organizer, departing from disparaging remarks made by his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, at the Republican convention. Their overlapping views were no less remarkable.

Both candidates agreed that President Bush erred following 9/11 by asking Americans to go shopping rather than making a serious effort to channel the nation’s aroused sense of patriotism to sustained and productive volunteer activities. They pledged to make a new call to public service a hallmark of the next presidency.

Giving concrete expression to those pledges, the candidates are among the co-sponsors of a promising piece of legislation introduced on Friday in the Senate. Drafted by Senators Edward Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat, and Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah, the bill would build on the success of AmeriCorps.