Interfaith parishioners, religious leaders, and 9/11 mourners gathered in the shadow of the World Trade Center to watch St. Nicholas’s translucent Greek marble–mined from the same vein that supplied the Parthenon–glow for the first time in the darkening evening.

 Archbishop Elpidophoros of America led those gathered in a Greek Orthodox mass service: the resurrection service usually reserved for Easter. Attendees, dressed elegantly in somber colors, wordlessly tilted their memorial candles to light one another’s flames. Turning to face the church and with his candle held aloft, Archbishop Elpidophoros commemorated the attacks and all those who died in them.

 “The day of 9/11 was no less than the crucifixion of our nation, and the reopening of St. Nicholas is its resurrection,” said Archbishop Elpidophoros.

 Light cascaded from the building’s dome to its foundation in a spiritual display.

 The rebirth of St. Nicholas Church was long beset by financial and construction difficulties. Building began in 2014, following years of negotiations with the Cuomo administration that yielded a land swap: 155 Cedar Street was exchanged for the nearby and four-times-as-large plot that now houses the church at 130 Liberty Street. 

 One of the final components of 9/11 rebuilding in Lower Manhattan, St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine is set to open its doors later this fall. This reopening is the result of, “construction literally around the clock, the fundraising that made this possible, and the prayer that brought us to this day,” said the Archbishop.

 In its new location, St. Nicholas is just a stone’s throw from its old site, and it overlooks the World Trade Center

The rebuilt Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine glows in the shadow of the World Trade Center, twenty years after its destruction on 9/11. Photo by Annie Iezzi

Plaza, which was teeming with security guards the evening of the event. Also in attendance were members of The Friends of St. Nicholas, a nonprofit 501(c)3 that gathered funds internationally for the project. As of this fall, the diocese and The Friends of St. Nicholas have raised $95 million for reconstruction, lighting embedded in the walls, and upkeep of the church and national shrine.

 Barbara Katsos, the wife of a member of the Friends of St. Nicholas and a longtime attendee of the original church, called the evening a “monumental moment.” 

 “The light, for me, represents the resurrection of St. Nicholas and the resurrection of New York City,” she said, noting that the church has been a bastion of the Greek community for generations. “It began as a tavern,” she said, “where all of the Greek immigrants from Ellis Island would come to rest.”

 In 1916, the tavern was converted into a church by Greek community members and named for Saint Nicholas, the saint of seafarers, who protected their journey to America. Now, the rebuilt church and shrine displays imagery both religious and secular, featuring carvings depicting saints alongside portraits of 9/11 first responders. Committed to providing an interfaith space of reflection, St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine will host mass, as well as educational events and memorials for mourning families on its two dedicated bereavement floors.

Carmen Alexandra, a Greek Orthodox woman who attended college across from the Twin Towers and worked at the Chase Bank Plaza nearby, shares that she visits Ground Zero every year to reflect. Photo by Annie Iezzi

 “Did my faith bring me through? Yes. I had friends who died very young, related to 9/11,” said Carmen Alexandra, who attended Borough Manhattan Community College across from the Twin Towers.

 She would eat lunch at The Sphere, a sculpture that stood between the towers and was crushed by their debris. Its crumpled shell has since been relocated to the campus of St. Nicholas Church and transformed into a 9/11 memorial, which Carmen Alexandra visits every year.  

 During the service, she coughed quietly, the flame of her candle wavering as she moved. Following the attacks, Carmen Alexandra worked in the nearby Chase Bank Plaza, which she said has given her long-term respiratory and lung problems, before becoming a nun. 

 “I thought I should be working,” she said. “Everybody I knew was leaving the city. But I wanted to stay here. I wanted to be in my city; I wanted to be here.”

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Held inside the museum’s 9/11 permanent memorial room, the service contained the presentation of the colors, singing of the national anthem, invocation, remarks and laying of the wreath. 

“I encourage all of you to spend some time and think about the choices they had to make,” First Deputy Commissioner of FDNY Laura Kavanagh said in her speech. “Not only did they make the ultimate sacrifice, but they really left behind the foundation and legacy to save people’s lives.”

Housed in two adjoining rooms, the 9/11 memorial room serves as the first permanent memorial for the firefighters lost during the attacks. In the center of the exhibition stands a black marble and tile memorial with the names and images of each firefighter.

The exhibit also includes used tools and items recovered from the Ground Zero, a timeline and media coverage of 9/11 events, an interactive computer station and images of national tributes to the FDNY.

Within the 9/11 memorial at NYC Fire Museum, a timeline of September 11, 2001, is displayed chronicling the tragic events happened during that day, along with the responding rescue and recovery efforts. Photo by Shiyu Xu

Gary Urbanowicz, director of the NYC Fire Museum, gave his condolences to the past and welcomed the visitors who came to the museum to pay their respect. 

“This memorial is a very special place for all of us,” Urbanowicz said. “Those heroes turned words into actions and that inspired me to make our commitment to never forget.”

For those who share the haunting experience, visiting the memorial has become their annual routine. 

Merill Resnick, 72, who used to work a few blocks away from the Twin Towers, recalled his memory of this day 18 years ago. 

“I was working, watching the news and constantly going back to the window to see what was going on,” Resnick said. “I remember when the second tower collapsed, I looked out of the window, and there was nothing there. It took around 10 minutes for the smoke to reappear again. For me, it was a haunting experience.” 

Resnick witnessed the firefighters as first responders going into the unknown. He said that he has been in this room many times, and “each time it becomes more and more heartening.”

“I just noticed today that this room is actually an addition to the museum,” Resnick said. “It’s beautiful, but it’s the addition I’d rather not see.” 

Former director of the museum, Judith Jamison, 78, also pays a visit to the memorial every year. For her, the character of the firefighters is something she finds “absolutely amazing.”

Former Director of the museum Judith Jamison, center, pays her condolences during the invocation for the 9/11 memorial service at the NYC Fire Museum on September 11, 2019. Photo by Shiyu Xu.

“The best thing about the museum is to talk to the firefighters who have volunteered to work here and get their stories,” Jamison said. “It’s inspiring to work with people like this, and it’s inspiring to the country to know what happened down 9/11.”

Jamison also said that after retiring from FDNY, many volunteered as docents in the museum to help educate the public.

A new addition to the museum, a survivor tree recovered from the 9/11 attack, was planted back in June to serve as a tribute to the lives of 343 firefighters and the 200 that lost their lives from 9/11 related disease and illness.

“The tree is a tribute and reminder for all of us to never forget,” Urbanowicz said.

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Sean Sheosarah traveled from England to pay his respects at ground zero. Photo by Louie Lazar

Had Oswaldo Brasile’s gear been any more patriotic and “American” in nature, he might have been dressed as Uncle Sam.

The 47-year-old resident of Sao Paolo, Brazil, decked out in a red, white and blue polo shirt inscribed in cursive with the words of the Declaration of Independence, had just flown to New York from Orlando, where he’d been attending business meetings. Now, on this overcast morning in Lower Manhattan, he stood just a few blocks from ground zero where events commemorating the 10th anniversary of 9/11 were underway.

“It seems like a very appropriate shirt for today,” said the Brazilian. Every few seconds another passerby would pat his back or direct a ‘thumbs up’ his way.

Brasile, who described his job title as “President of the Institute of Internal Auditors” in Brazil, said he’d traveled here to “remember and to see how deep the impact [of 9/11] was on people’s lives.”

“And also to give Brazilian support for the U.S.,” he added. “It’s my way to do something.”

On blocks surrounding the 9/11 Memorial that was unveiled here Sunday, foreign visitors like Brasile comprised a sizable chunk of those who packed its sidewalks.

Like their American counterparts, foreign citizens said that they, too, had come to honor the victims and their families. But many of these foreigners also seemed to revel in unofficial roles, self-declared ambassadors of their home nations. They were eager to express their neighbors’ and native countries’ solidarity with America.

Unlike Oswaldo Brasile, whose surname was the only immediate clue as to his country of origin, it was often easy to determine one’s nationality by merely eyeballing the person’s attire.

One example of this was Paul Cull, a 46-year-old with Julius Caesar-style black hair and a black polo shirt featuring the words “New Zealand” near the top. Cull is from Christchurch in the southern part of that country, a historic and scenic city with a river intersecting its center. It’s a land with majestic mountains, about as distant from New York as anyplace on Earth.

“[9/11] was a very significant event in world history, whatever your political views,” said Cull, who noted that he’s in the U.S. doing missionary work unrelated to Sunday’s events. “It has molded and changed the planet.”

In February, an earthquake struck Southern New Zealand with an epicenter near Christchurch, devastating Cull’s community. The disaster claimed nearly 200 lives, and resulted in the nation’s first ever declared State of Emergency.

Cull said his close proximity to that trauma made his attendance Sunday essential.

“We’ve been through our own disaster and can sympathize with the loss of life,” he said. “It’s tragic.”

Along Broadway Street, throngs of foreign journalists shifted about with camera equipment and microphones, jockeying for space and conducting interviews in languages as disparate as Spanish and Mandarin, Japanese and French. Their presence highlighted the international spotlight on the day’s ceremonies.

One such foreign reporter was Christian Hauffman, a morning show news anchor in Berlin, Germany. A tall blonde man of 37, Hauffman, gripping a yellow microphone and sporting a bright red shirt with the words “104.6 RTL: Berlins Hit-Radio” said there’s much interest in Germany surrounding the memorial in Manhattan. He said there were moments of silence in Berlin today to honor the 9/11 dead, adding that many Berliners were attending church to commemorate 9/11.

Hauffman attributed his country’s attention here and his station’s media coverage, by extension, to the climate of uncertainty and alarm that pervaded Germany a decade ago, in the attacks’ aftermath.

“People were frightened, buildings were evacuated,” recalled Hauffman, who was working for another Berlin radio network at the time. “Nobody knew if there were planes that would hit our buildings. People were frightened.”

To most foreign citizens who’d come to pay their respects, however, the reasons for being at ground zero Sunday were more basic.

Sean Sheosarah, wearing a red Liverpool soccer jersey and gnawing on a toothpick, stood in a long, narrow, cordoned-off security line leading to a police checkpoint, awaiting entry into the memorial’s events. A burly, shaved-headed construction worker from Ireland who resides in the UK, Sheosarah, 42, had flown to New York from London solely for this purpose. He said little, but chose his words selectively: he’d be in the U.S. just four days, he said. He’d lived in Boston on 9/11.

Asked why he ventured across an ocean just to be here Sunday, Sheosarah shrugged in agitated fashion, as if the answer were obvious.

“It’s [about] respect, isn’t it?” he said, in a sharp Irish twang. “If you respect something, what’s the difference if it’s a mile away or a million miles away?”

He then removed the toothpick from his mouth, just as a ceremonial bugle began ringing out over Lower Manhattan.

“Distance,” he said, “Has nothing to do with it.”

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Vistors watch Westboro Baptist Chuch protest the 9/11 memorial service. The church believes the attack was an act of God. Photo by Nicole Guzzardi

The often controversial Westboro Baptist Church, known for their protests, which can include American flag burnings and picketing funerals, were in full force at today’s 9/11 memorial service.

Stationed on Broadway and Liberty Streets, they held signs that read, “God’s Wrath = 9/11, and America is Doomed,” and shouted “God hates America,” startling visitors who came to ground zero to remember the thousands killed on Sept. 11, 2001.

Church members shouted their belief that soldiers and 9/11 victims died by God’s hands, because he does not approve of homosexuality. They wore t-shirts donning the slogan, “God Hates Fags.”

“You think 9/11 was bad, you ain’t seen nothing yet,” said protester Abigail Phelps. “There is still time. You are still alive and you can still repent.”

Phelps said the 9/11 attacks were just a fraction of God’s punishment on the world for their sins, which include adultery, fornication, abortion and sodomy.

“We are supposed to thank God for all things that happen, that is to indicate that you understand and are obedient to a sovereign God,” Phelps said in regards to the 9/11 attacks.

Many visitors seemed disturbed by the protest.

Michael Fleming, 32, of the Bronx, who served two tours in Iraq from 2003 to 2005 and served six months in Afghanistan, shouted at protestors. He was hurt by a sign that read, “Soldiers Die, God Laughs.”

“I want to jump over the fence and rip their throats out,” he said. “This is a day of somberness and remembrance.”

Hannah Moch, 18, of Battery Park, said the protest was especially disturbing to her -not only did she grow up in the city, but also she was in elementary school at PS 234, which stands about three blocks from where the Twin Towers fell.

“On that day, my mom saw the first tower hit and immediately came and got me [from school], and she took me outside and she knelt down by me and said, ‘you have to look at this, [pointing to the towers] because this is history,” Moch said.

Today, she argued back and forth across barriers with protestors about gay rights.

“The whole point is they should be ashamed of what they are doing here today,” she said.

Police surrounded the protestors to make sure there were no incidents.

“If you read the bible, then you know God said there is no such thing as an innocent person,” Phelps said of the 9/11 victims.

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Returning to ground zero for the first time since being deployed to the site two days after the Twin Towers fell, retired U.S. Army Sergeant Wilfredo Torres marveled at how different the area looked ten years later. Photo by Chris Palmer

Two days after the Twin Towers fell in 2001, Wilfredo Torres, a U.S. Army sergeant stationed in Harlem, was sent to ground zero with his platoon.

Ten years later, returning to Lower Manhattan today for the first time since 2001, Torres leaned against a guardrail at the corner of Church and Murray Streets and gazed up in awe at the buildings towering over him.

“It’s amazing how it’s so clean,” said Torres, 56, who now is retired and lives in Buffalo, N.Y. “When I was here 10 years ago, there was a lot of dust, a lot of garbage. The buildings were just covered in white.”

Torres spent 21 days in the rubble with fellow members of the military, firefighters, police officers and others, cleaning, deconstructing and pulling bodies out of the collapsed towers.

“We did whatever was needed,” he said. “Anything to help.”

Torres was one of many veterans at the remembrance ceremonies today, eager to share stories of war, death, hardship and triumph.

“It means so much to me to be here right now,” said Robert Dodds, 22, a lanky Army civilian affairs specialist from Pocono Pines, Pa. Dodds, sporting Army fatigues with a maroon beret, had vowed to spend as many 9/11 anniversaries as he could in Manhattan, but spent last year’s anniversary in Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

While serving in Afghanistan, Dodds said he was hit with a rocket-propelled grenade, or RPG. “We took, like, 50 RPGs to our vehicle after it flipped over,” he said. “I was with my friend. We were fighting for our lives, but we made it out alive. It was a miracle we didn’t die.”

“My legs got peppered with shrapnel,” he added. “I had some nerve damage on my right ankle. For a while it was hard to stand up without pain medicine. But after a bunch of rehab, it healed up pretty good.”

Dodds, stood with his friend Ashley Cialella, 22, of Levittown, Pa., also an Army civilian affairs specialist. Both he and Cialella have lost friends to the war.

“One of my sergeants died,” Cialella said. “My good friend Ralphie died, too.”

Dodds joined her in recalling their losses.

“One of my good buddies died when I was home,” Dodds said. “I hadn’t cried since I was a little kid, but I just lost it. I’d rather get wounded every day of the week” instead of losing a friend.

Scott Sanchez, 34, of Midwood, Brooklyn and a former field artillery specialist in the Army, lost a friend in a Humvee accident.

He said he dealt with minor symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder when he got home.

“It didn’t really hit me ‘til after I got out,” said Sanchez, who left the Army in 2007 and is now a student at Berkeley College in Manhattan. “A lot of guys in the military say ‘What are we doing?’ It’s hard to know sometimes.”

Despite the difficulties of military service, Vincent Fraser, 51, of Middle Village, Queens, a captain in the Army Reserves, swelled with pride as he looked around the area of Manhattan that was once caked in ash. He served at ground zero on the day of the attack. He thought it would take 10 years to clean up the rubble and debris.

“I remember seeing a firefighter being brought out with a flag on top of his body,” he said. “Everyone was crying. Barely a day went by when you didn’t cry.”

Then he paused and took a deep breath.

“But to see this,” he said, motioning towards the partially-constructed 1 World Trade Center tower. “This is a miracle. I was proud then, when we went to ground zero, and I’m proud now of being a New Yorker.”

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