11 September 2015. As Seen by Vitaly Podvitsky… 9.11 (A Memorial)

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We need say nothing. We all stand mute before the mystery of death…

Вечная память

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Work Starts on Ground Zero Church Destroyed in 9/11 Attacks

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St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in lower Manhattan, destroyed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, will reopen in 2016. Church and political leaders broke ground on the new building two weeks ago, which will stand on the corner of Liberty and Greenwich streets. Archbishop Demetrios Trakatellis, Exarch of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and First Hierarch of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (GOAA), recalled walking through the church site 13 years ago, after it was destroyed by rubble from the fallen towers. According to the HuffPo, he said during the groundbreaking ceremony, “We remember this very place filled with ruins, hiding under piles of debris, the pulverised remains of 3,000 innocent victims. Breathing a very heavy air, saturated with the dust of storm, wood, iron and with tiny particles of human bodies, we remember walking with heavy hearts to the specific place where our St Nicholas stood as a building. …The church wasn’t there. We stood there frozen, paralysed, and cried”.

The new church will be a 4,100-square-foot (380 square metres) domed building that can fit about 150 people… about twice the capacity of the old church. The space will also include a nonsectarian meditation area. Archbishop Demetrios said, “It’ll be a refuge for people in need of spiritual comfort, regardless of their specific beliefs or unbeliefs”. Former New York Governor George Pataki described the significance of rebuilding St Nicholas, “We had remembrance, we had commerce, but without St Nicholas, we didn’t have faith. Well, now, today, we have remembrance, we have commerce, we have that rock, we have faith, right here at St Nicholas. It was the Greek city-states that gave us our belief today in freedom. It’ll now be the Greek Orthodox Church that’s the rock of faith that anchors all that is done here at Ground Zero”.

St Nicholas raised 7 million USD (295 million Roubles. 43 million Renminbi. 430 million INR. 7.85 million CAD. 7.95 million AUD. 5.6 million Euros. 4.4 million UK Pounds) of the 38 million USD (1.6 billion Roubles. 233 million Renminbi. 2.33 billion INR. 42.6 million CAD. 43.2 million AUD. 30.3 million Euros. 23.8 million UK Pounds) needed to rebuild the church. You can make donations towards the rebuilding at the GOAA website.

30 October 2014

Christian Today

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/work.starts.on.ground.zero.church.destroyed.in.9.11.attacks/42397.htm

Site for New Greek Orthodox Church Near WTC Site Blessed by Archbishop Demetrios Trakatellis

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On Saturday, hundreds of New York City’s Greek Orthodox Christians attended a blessing for a new church site near Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan, to replace St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, destroyed in the 9/11 terror attacks. In remarks at the site, Archbishop Demetrios Trakatellis, the First Hierarch of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (GOAA), recalled his dismay when, on 12 September 2001, he and other clergy visited the spot where St Nicholas church stood since the early 20th Century. The collapse of the Twin Towers crushed the tiny structure, making it the only church destroyed in the attack. Archbishop Demetrios said, “We stood there frozen, paralysed. There was a big hole instead of a church. It left a terrible kind of impression”.

More than 13 years later, work started on a larger 38 million USD (1.55 billion Roubles. 233 million Renminbi. 2.34 billion INR. 42.9 million CAD. 43.5 million AUD. 29.8 million Euros. 23.6 million UK Pounds) domed church designed by famed Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava intended to serve both as a new home for the Greek Orthodox parish and as a national non-denominational shrine for Ground Zero visitors. The dome made of glass and white marble will be backlit from within so that it glows at night. Archbishop Demetrios said, “It’ll be a refuge for people in need of spiritual comfort regardless of their specific beliefs, or unbeliefs. Above all, this resurrected St Nicholas church will be a monument declaring the victory of good over evil, of love over hatred”. Those in attendance included Calatrava, US Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY), former NY State Governor George Pataki, former NYC Mayor David Dinkins, and various other New York and New Jersey politicians. Pataki, who was governor at the time of the attack, said the church was an important addition to the memorials and skyscrapers that rose in recent years at the WTC noting, “We had remembrance, we had commerce, but without St Nicholas, we didn’t have faith”.

Greek immigrants founded the original church in 1916 and began services at its 1,200-square-foot (112 square metres) site on Cedar Street in 1922. After its destruction, a legal dispute between the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the GOAA over the original site delayed rebuilding. In 2011, the parties struck a deal in which the church agreed to exchange land on Cedar Street for the rights to another parcel on Liberty Street, just south of the National September 11 Memorial Museum. Calatrava also conceived the Port Authority 4 billion USD (163 billion Roubles. 24.5 billion Renminbi. 246 billion INR. 4.51 billion CAD. 4.57 billion AUD. 3.14 billion Euros. 2.5 billion UK Pounds) WTC transportation hub. The church chose him for the project after he submitted a plan that drew inspiration from two New Roman shrines in Constantinople (now Istanbul)… Hagia Sophia and the Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora. Church officials said that donations from around the world funded construction, including 260,000 USD (10.6 billion Roubles. 1.6 million Renminbi. 16 million INR. 293,000 CAD. 297,000 AUD. 204,000 Euros. 162,000 UK Pounds) from the Greek government. They expect the shrine to open within the next two years.

18 October 2014

Tom Hays

Associated Press

http://news.yahoo.com/greek-church-near-wtc-gets-blessing-150445221.html

 

11 September 2014. Here’s Something Else That the Ukie Nationalists Are Claiming…

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Some demented Ukies on the web are claiming that the Ukraine gave the above sculpture to the USA as a gift to commemorate 9/11. That’s not true (that surprised you, grasshopper?)… it’s the usual Winnegan’s Fake from the fascist nutters. It’s the Tear of Grief (actually titled “To the Struggle Against World Terrorism”) by the controversial Georgian/Russian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli. It features a 40-foot teardrop suspended in the fissure of a 106-foot bronze rectangular tower. The monument includes the names of all the victims of the 9/11 attacks in New York, Washington DC, and Pennsylvania, as well as the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. At the ground breaking for the massive project, President V V Putin was present and called the sculpture “a gift from the people of Russia”. It’s located at the tip of the decommissioned Military Ocean Terminal, now rechristened The Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor, in Bayonne NJ (after nearby Jersey City NJ first accepted, then declined, the free monument); its dedication was on 11 September 2006. Another Galician Uniate myth shot down by ruthless facts…

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