St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, built in 1916 across the street from what would become the home of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, is a little-known casualty of the September 11 attacks. The four-story church collapsed with the fall of the south tower, leaving only “a handful of damaged icons and religious items [to be] found amongst the rubble.”
Archbishop Demetrios, primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America, vowed to rebuild the church “on the same sacred spot as a symbol of determined faith.”
But, as the New York Times reports today, the building of the church’s new structure is seven years late, largely due to the “the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the agency overseeing reconstruction [which] has not finalized the exchange of land needed to provide the congregation with a new home near ground zero.” To complicate things, the church is having trouble raising the necessary money from congregants alone and seeks more aid than the Port Authority is willing to give.
To read more on St. Nicholas Church, or to donate money or materials to the rebuilding project, visit their website here .
