New York, September 1, 2017
Photo: easterndiocese.org
Culminating a year of detailed planning and preparation, His Grace Bishop Irinej of Eastern American (Serbian Orthodox Church) celebrated the Invocation of the Holy Spirit to bless the work beginning on clearing and rebuilding New York’s St. Sava Cathedral, severely damaged by fire on Pascha morning in 2016, reports the Eastern American Diocesan site.
The church building was initially acquired from the Anglican Church by St. Nicholai Velimirovich, and the restored structure is intended to honor this history, combining the church’s original Gothic Revival external appearance, with an interior modeled after early Byzantine basilicas. The Serbian monasteries of Gradac and Dechani are also examples of such an amalgamation.
Photo: easterndiocese.org Extensive work has been done since the fire, assessing the damage and planning the temple’s restoration. The beginning task of clearing debris is expected to take three weeks, with the enclosing of the sanctuary slated to begin in October. The community hopes to have a covered church in time for Pascha next year. The St. Sava community celebrated Pascha this year at the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia Cathedral of Our Lady “of the Sign.”
In his homily, Bp. Irinej emphasized the value of hope and faith as the foundation that keep the community of St. Sava going. According to the words of the Bishop,
We embellish our churches with Byzantine icons, which depict not the mirrored image of this world, but the transfigured reality of the Kingdom of Heaven, which teach us that nothing can be destroyed forever here on this earth, because we hold in our hands as the gift of the Holy Spirit, the power and the might of the Transfiguration. God has gifted us with saving these walls that contain that structure in which the first Orthodox Liturgy was celebrated in Continental America. These walls have been imbued with so many prayers and for that reason they could not come down.
All that currently remains of the West 25th Street cathedral is a charred shell of a church following the four-alarm fire on Pascha, May 1, 2016. The parishioners had just cleared out from morning services when the church’s 69-year-old caretaker, Slobodan Ljubenko, accidentally left a box of candles burning underneath a pew. While the scorched roof beams have been torn down and replaced with metal ones following a request from the city, the smell of burnt wood remains.
