Ground Zero church officially opened on feast of St. Nicholas

New York City, December 8, 2022

    

More than two decades after the tragedy of 9/11, the new St. Nicholas Church and National Shrine at Ground Zero was officially opened on the feast of St. Nicholas on Tuesday.

A much simpler St. Nicholas Church used to stand on the same spot, but it was destroyed by falling rubble on 9/11. In 2010, Church leaders reached an agreement to build a new church, and after more than a decade of starts and stops, the church held its first Liturgy, on its patronal feast, celebrated by Bishop Apostolos of Medeia, reports Ekathimerini.

“Today is a joyous day for America and for New York,” said Michael Psaros, Chairman of the Friends of St. Nicholas, which raised funds for the church. “We invite all of America to please come visit, to come to the cenotaph that was created and built in memory of 3,000 people who were martyred and murdered on September 11.”

“To see it back up like this, to see it so close to the Statue of Liberty, which represents all the immigrants who helped make this church, is very moving to all of us,” said Maria Yatrakis, a parishioner of the old St. Nicholas Church.

In all, the church cost about $95 million said Fr. Alexander Karloutsos, the former Vicar General of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese.

The doors of the church were opened by Patriarch Bartholomew in November 2021, and the church was consecrated by Archbishop Elpidophoros this summer.

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12/8/2022

Comments
Anne12/10/2022 10:44 pm
It will be a temple to the new religion of Ecumenism. Origen's heresy reborn.
Alexander12/9/2022 1:22 pm
@Antiochene son: My dear, go and google ancient orthodox churches with their iconostasis and you will see that the iconsreens are almost to the ceiling or with many ranks and orders of icons. There is even a rule on which cin (rank) which icon has to be placed. This is not my personal preference but Orthodox Tradition. In some greek churches (also in other local churches) the iconostasis almost completely disappeared. Or is very low with only one rank. The argument is that ancient churches did not have such huge iconscreens. This argumentation is nonsense because ancient churches also did not have a choir, mosaics, communion spoons, ...Will we now remove all this? This is absolute PROTESTANT SPIRIT. Dionysios Theoklitos from Mount Athos wrote in an article in the 90's of exactly this protestant spirit in greece. He described how iconscreens have been removed. It dates back to Christ and apostolic times that the Holy Table is seperated and hidden. In apostolic times this was done with curtains. Like it is still in oriental orthodox churches. Even catholic, protestant, anglican churches seperated the Holy Table. It can be seen in many Churches in Italy, GB, Germany...It often was done with fences, wooden structures, ...etc On "Orthodox Ethos" you also can read about how today almost everyone can enter the Holy of Holies. Which is absolutely forbidden by the Holy Canons. I have seen it myself in greece, serbia...even lay people entered the Holy of Holies. Even in blue Jeans.. Only in Russian Churches I have seen a very strict Order that NO ONE - beside clergy- is allowed to enter.
Alex12/8/2022 8:54 pm
$95 million? Where did they get that figure?! When the dust settles, the 'cost' will be much, much more than that!
Antiochene Son12/8/2022 6:23 pm
@Alexander: Floor to ceiling iconostases are not a universal Orthodox practice. Let's not get ridiculous. There are real critiques and criticisms of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to be had, but that doesn't mean everything they do, or everything that doesn't match your preference, is heresy.
Alexander 12/8/2022 1:39 pm
Hetetics and schismatics! You also can see, that in recent churches the iconostasis almost disappeared. Very low, only one line. In some greek churches they completely disappeared. Only two icons on each side of the Holy Table.
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