(11 Sep 2021) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4343549
After 20 years, Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and Shrine participated in the annual commemorations of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks with an inaugural lighting of the National Shrine.
"We have gathered tonight on this eve of Sept. 11 to pay our deepest respect and condolences to the families and to the friends of those who perished on that fateful day 20 years ago," said Archbishop Elpidophoros Lambriniadis of America as he led the memorial.
St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church was the only house of worship to be destroyed in the 9/11 attacks, crushed by falling debris from the south tower. Today it is being rebuilt as a beacon on a hill, honoring all those lost that day.
"This Church, this shrine, stands before you today to tell to the world that light will always shine through the darkness and the darkness will never overcome it," said Archbishop Lambriniadis, "We illuminate this church because we are also called to be a light in this world."
The church is being built in a small, elevated park overlooking the World Trade Center memorial plaza, close to the reflecting pools that mark where the twin towers once stood. Its walls now mostly covered in thin panels of marble mined from the same Pentelic vein in Greece that sourced the Parthenon, the ancient temple in Athens.
Families of victims, friends and community members gathered to watch as the marble panels of the National shrine lit up from within. Families like the Katsimatides who lost a son and brother on 9/11.
"This is going to be a place of reflection and we're really, really looking forward to it, it's been a long time. And I know it's going to happen," said Calliope Katsimatides, representing her late son John, who frequented the original Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. "And this lighting is going to enlighten us," she said.
Standing in the glow of the newly lit National Shrine, Katsimatides continued, "And life is hard, but you always have to..." She paused, getting help from her daughter, "Find the light in the tunnel and go for it," she said.
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