Watch: Greek shrine will replace church destroyed on 9/11
On Sept. 10, 2021, almost 20 years after the nation’s deadliest terrorist attack, there will be a ceremonial lighting for St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine, which is being built to replace the parish church and to honor those who were lost on Sept. 11, 2001.
The ceremony will be a milestone in a project long beset with bureaucratic tangles and financial woes but now on track for completion next year.
Given its prominent location near the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, the shrine is destined to become a signature American expression of Eastern Orthodoxy, an ancient Christian communion that still predominates in Greece and much of Eastern Europe but has a slender share of the U.S. Christian population.
In addition to its sanctuary, the shrine will have a separate space for meditation and reflection for people of all faiths.
“It’s going to have a rich liturgical life” as a church, said Michael Psaros, vice chairman of the Friends of St. Nicholas, the private entity overseeing the project in cooperation with the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. “But this beautiful shrine we’re building belongs to New York, it belongs to the U.S., and it belongs to the world.”
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