NEW YORK (AP) Hundreds of members of New Yorks Greek Orthodox community attended a blessing ceremony today for a new church near ground zero in Lower Manhattan that will replace a house of worship that was destroyed in the September 11 terrorist attacks.

In his remarks at the construction site, the leader of the Greek Orthodox Church in America recalled his dismay when, on September 12, 2001, he and other pastors visited the spot where St Nicholas church had stood since the early 20th Century.

The tiny structure had been crushed in the collapse of the twin towers, making it the only church destroyed in the attack.

We stood there frozen, paralysed, said Archbishop Demetrios. There was a big hole instead of a church. It left a terrible kind of impression.

More than 13 years later, work has begun on a much larger, $38 million domed church designed by famed Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava intended to serve both as the 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.

It will be a refuge for people in need of spiritual comfort regardless of their specific beliefs, or unbeliefs, the archbishop said. 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, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, former Governor George Pataki, former Mayor David Dinkins and various other government officials from New York and New Jersey.

Pataki, who was New Yorks governor at the time of the attack, said the church was an important addition to the memorials and skyscrapers that have risen in recent years at the World Trade Centre site.

The original church was founded by Greek immigrants in 1916 and began services at its 1 200-square-foot (112-square-metre) location on Cedar Street in 1922. After it was destroyed, the rebuilding was delayed by a legal dispute between the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America over the original site.

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Church rising from ground zero

Christ Community Church Construction Timelapse
This is a timelapse of the construction at Christ Community Church in St. Charles, IL.

By: Carlson Architecture

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Christ Community Church Construction Timelapse - Video

VILLAGERS are set to take the significant first step in the building of their new church after fundraising for more than a decade.

The community at Crossways has been working together for years to build their own church to house a growing congregation and a special First Turf Turning ceremony will be held to mark the construction finally getting underway.

The building of St Aldhelms Church is expected to be completed by Easter 2015.

Crossways resident Simon Hunt said: This most exciting step marks the beginning of a new chapter in the progress of Crossways parishioners to establish a permanent and lasting base for worship and associated activities. To have reached this point has not been without much effort, hard work and perseverance of many, many people.

Villagers have raised more than 100,000 towards the new church, which will be spent on maintenance and running of the building.

Mr Hunt added that people across the community had been involved, many of whom are a silent majority of stalwarts.

The new building will be sited at land at Frome Valley CE VA First School.

The Reverend Jacquie Birdseye, of the united benefice of Moreton, Woodsford, Crossways and Tincleton, was appointed to oversee the building of the new church around nine years ago.

She is currently on sabbatical until early November.

Planning permission was granted by West Dorset District Council in September last year.

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Al-lelujah chorus

Oct. 17, 2014, 4 a.m.

Darling Street between Wingewarra and Church street will be closed for two weeks from Monday for the construction of a new water main.

Dubbo City Council's Manager Works and Services Ian Bailey at the construction site. Photo: GREG KEEN.

DARLING Street betweenWingewarra and Church streetwill be closed for two weeks from Monday for the construction of a new water main.

Dubbo City Council Manager Works Services Ian Bailey said a new 150mm diameter water main will be constructed to upgrade the existing smaller 100mm-diameter main to meet the increasing demand from surrounding residents and businesses.

"Throughout this time, work along the eastern side of Darling Street to renew aged infrastructure as part of stage three will continue, leaving the northbound lane of Darling Street open between Church Street and Talbragar Street," Mr Bailey said.

"The footpath will still be open. All of the businesses you'll still be able to get to, it'll just be a little bit longer to walk."

Mr Bailey said vehicular access to Darling Street businesses, the DRTCC and the Civic Administration building, will be available for residents via Brisbane and Church Street before proceeding northbound down Darling Street.

Construction will halt on Saturday, October 25, for the DREAM Festival's Twilight Markets and Lantern Parade and parking for the event will be available on the northern end of Darling Street, in the council car parks beside the Civic Administration Building and on the corner of Darling and Talbragar Streets.

"It is expected both lanes of Darling Street between Wingewarra and Church Street will be closed until Monday, November 3, at which point a northbound lane will be reopened with the southbound lane to remain closed until December this year," Mr Bailey said.

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Wingewarra and Church streets will be closed for water main construction

An employee with the City of Aztec points on Wednesday to where a sidewalk will go on the corner of Church Street and Mesa Verde Avenue in Aztec. (Alexa Rogals / The Daily Times)

AZTEC Residents along the 300 block of South Church Street will soon have new neighbors: construction crews rebuilding or replacing sidewalks, curbs and gutters along the roadway just east of Main Avenue.

On Tuesday, Aztec City Commissioners approved spending $69,000 to have the road improved between South Mesa Verde Avenue and East Zia Street.

Bill Watson, the city engineer and public works director, went door-to-door to discuss the project with effected residents. On Sept. 17, he hosted a public meeting to share information and take questions about the roadwork.

Watson will also hold a pre-construction meeting on Monday with city officials and the contractor for the project, Carreon Construction.

A sidewalk is seen on Wednesday at the corner of Church Street and Mesa Verde Avenue in Aztec. (Alexa Rogals/The Daily Times)

Aztec Projects Manager Ed Kotyk said roadwork will start soon. Work to replace the roadway is expected to begin in the spring.

"(Monday's) pre-con meeting is with the city and the contractor not for the public and they'll go over the design plans and do a field visit (to Church Street) to make sure there are no surprises," Kotyk said. "They'll either start construction next week or the week after."

Church Street is typical of many of the older residential streets in San Juan County. It has cracked, sunken and intermittent sidewalks that often lack wheelchair ramps and a roadway layered with decades' worth of asphalt repairs.

On Wednesday, city workers started preparing for the upcoming project by moving a fire hydrant six feet east, away from the street. The hydrant, placed more than a half-century prior, was precariously close to the curb at the corner of Church and Mesa Verde Avenue. It was moved to make way for 4-foot wide sidewalks along the east side of the street, which is currently covered with lawns, shrubbery or yucca plants.

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Roadwork along South Church Street is expected to begin soon

When the Connecticut Conference of the United Church of Christ holds its 147th annual meeting Friday in Cheshire, it will be asked to consider a resolution calling for the church to divest any investments in companies "profiting from the occupation of the Palestine Territories by the State of Israel."

The resolution, submitted by the board of deacons of the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme, also calls for church members to boycott Israeli products made in the occupied territories.

It is one of two resolutions that the conference will review, the other being a call to end "mass incarceration for nonviolent offenses," which was submitted by several New Haven churches.

The divestiture resolution states: "Past General Synods have identified the Israeli Occupation of Palestinian land and its human rights abuses committed therein to be a major source of conflict and have called for the end of construction and expansion of settlements," and that "Palestinians in the West Bank have lived since 1967 under Israel military occupation which subjects them to many human rights abuses."

It calls for "the Connecticut Conference to divest any Consolidated Trust Fund holdings in companies profiting from the occupation of the Palestinian Territories by the state of Israel," listing Caterpillar Inc., Motorola Solutions, Hewlett-Packard Development and several other companies as examples of those that would be affected by the action.

It also asks "local church members" to support a boycott of goods produced by Israeli companies in the "occupied Palestinian territories." Examples listed were Ahava skin care products, SodaStream products and Hadiklaim dates.

Steven Jungkeit, senior minister of the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme, acknowledged Thursday that the resolution would be controversial, but said that his congregation proposed it after members made numerous trips to Israel and Palestine through the years.

"We believe it's the right thing to do," Jungkeit said. "It's a tricky issue to talk about, but I think that it's one that we need to raise our voices on."

The Connecticut Conference of the United Church of Christ is one of 39 regional conferences in the U.S. that makes up the 1.5 million-member United Church of Christ. The Connecticut Conference comprises 253 churches with more than 97,000 members.

Conference officials did not return telephone calls Thursday and could not be reached for comment.

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Resolution Asks UCC Conference To Divest Interest In Certain Israel Companies

VILLAGERS are set to take the significant first step in the building of their new church after fundraising for more than a decade.

The community at Crossways has been working together for years to build their own church to house a growing congregation and a special First Turf Turning ceremony will be held to mark the construction finally getting underway.

The building of St Aldhelms Church is expected to be completed by Easter 2015.

Crossways resident Simon Hunt said: This most exciting step marks the beginning of a new chapter in the progress of Crossways parishioners to establish a permanent and lasting base for worship and associated activities. To have reached this point has not been without much effort, hard work and perseverance of many, many people.

Villagers have raised more than 100,000 towards the new church, which will be spent on maintenance and running of the building.

Mr Hunt added that people across the community had been involved, many of whom are a silent majority of stalwarts.

The new building will be sited at land at Frome Valley CE VA First School.

The Reverend Jacquie Birdseye, of the united benefice of Moreton, Woodsford, Crossways and Tincleton, was appointed to oversee the building of the new church around nine years ago.

She is currently on sabbatical until early November.

Planning permission was granted by West Dorset District Council in September last year.

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Villagers to begin building new church after decade of fundraising

A quarter of a century has gone by since the Church of the Good Shepherd was established as a parish Oct. 16, 1989, based in the village of Kent in southwestern Indiana County.

As the roughly 800 members of the Roman Catholic parish pause to mark the milestone and celebrate the progress that has been made over the years, it's apparent that some things at the rural church have come full circle.

John Edward Timko of Irwin, the architect who designed the church building, and Msgr. Michael Matusak, who was the first pastor of the parish from its creation until 1997, are among guests expected to return for an Oct 19 Mass and receptions celebrating the Church of the Good Shepherd's 25 years. Bishop Lawrence E. Brandt of the Greensburg Diocese will be the principal celebrant and homilist for the special 2 p.m. Mass.

Greeting those in attendance will be Father William J. Lechnar, administrator of the parish since June 4. The appointment has been a return to familiar territory for Lechnar, who served as a deacon at Good Shepherd in its early days, before his ordination in 1997.

Lechnar recently gathered with some of Good Shepherd's longtime parishioners near the entrance to the church grounds, at one of the treasured landmarks at the site a Blessed Mother shrine. The stone grotto and statue was moved from the former Holy Cross Church in Iselin. Dating from 1908, Holy Cross was one of the earliest houses of worship for local Catholics and one three churches that formed the basis of the current Good Shepherd parish.

It was the first statue I ever blessed as a deacon, Lechnar noted of the figure of the Blessed Mother at Good Shepherd. I never dreamed I'd be back here as administrator of the parish.

It came over on a lowboy, parishioner Harry Baroni, 90 of Center Township, said of the shrine, recalling that a section of the crescent-shaped stone structure was temporarily removed so that it could make the trip on the trailer.

Other shrines along the lane leading to the Church of the Good Shepherd represent the former parish church of St. Gertrude in McIntyre and its mission church, St. Anthony in Aultman, both established in 1918.

Changing populations and mounting maintenance concerns after the better part of a century of service were among factors that eventually prompted suppression of the Iselin and McIntyre parishes to allow formation of the combined Church of the Good Shepherd Parish.

Good Shepherd parishioner Beth Marshall of Kent, who used to attend the McIntyre church, pointed out that none of the three older churches was handicapped-accessible and that needed upgrades would have cost about $500,000.

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Rural Kent parish celebrates quarter-century milestone

SALEM The Pleasant Street United Methodist Church will break ground Saturday morning on a new building that will bring expanded food pantry services to the community.

For many years, the Pleasant Street Church has sponsored the Food for the Hungry Food Pantry, which serves over 50 families in need each week with basic grocery items, said church trustee Bernard Campbell. The pantry has been recognized for its work in the Salem community, including a Pillar Award from the Greater Salem Chamber of Commerce.

In 2012, the church began planning for a new building to provide expanded facilities for the pantry and allow it to serve people in a more efficient manner.

Approvals for the new Hope Center building, including the site plan, were granted by the town last year.

Fundraising for the project has been ongoing since last year, and Campbell said enough funds have been committed to allow construction to begin.

The fundraising was helped along by several major corporate donations from companies, including Salem Co-operative Bank, Pentucket Bank, LW Companies, and Goundrey and Dewhirst Funeral Home.

A major gift from the recently closed Hannah Tenney Memorial United Methodist Church also helped to make the construction a reality.

Site work is already underway, and construction is expected to be completed by next spring.

When completed, the new building will provide expanded storage and service facilities for the food pantry (including pallet delivery capability) and office space, along with new community space which has the ability to allow expanded outreach ministries of the church, said Campbell.

A ceremony is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 18, at 10 a.m. on the church grounds at 8 Pleasant St. The public is invited.

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Salem church a step closer to expanded feeding capability

Ladner Christian Reformed Church will hold a dedication service this Sunday morning to give thanks for and celebrate the completion of a new wing. In the evening, the voices of the African Children's Choir will cap off the celebrations.

The construction project, which started at the end of April, has added 3,800 square feet of space, including an expanded foyer, a large multi-purpose room, offices and new washrooms.

The new space will free up current offices to be used as meeting rooms, give gatherers more conversation areas and provide greater capacity for group functions.

"My dream for this building is that we work hard to leverage this space for the sake of our community," says pastor Mike Koot, who has been with the church for just over a year. "This is a resource that God has given us to share. What exactly that will look like is something we have to work out."

The church serves the community through several regular events: a monthly Single Parents' dinner, a twice-monthly Kids' Club and a one-week Basic Skills Kids' Camp during the summer. Coffee Break Bible Study and Children's Story Hour (if required) run simultaneously one morning a week and The Well is a Friday morning drop-in for young moms or caregivers with young children. Every other Friday evening, the Friendship Coffee House hosts physically and mentally challenged adults and their caregivers in a time of singing, story,

snacks, crafts and games.

Sunday's dedication service is set for 10:30 a.m. The celebrations will culminate with the African Children's Choir concert at 6:30 p.m. All are warmly invited to experience the lively music and dances, along with the children's

beautiful voices and joyful smiles that have captivated audiences the world over.

Expect to hear well-loved children's songs, traditional spirituals and gospel favourites. A free-will offering will be taken to support African Children's Choir programs, such as education, care and relief and development programs.

The church is located at 4594-54A St.

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Church dedication capped off with visit from choir