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St.John the Baptist GR Orthodox Church Restoration

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Saving a Historic Community!

Saint John the Baptist is a Greek Orthodox church and community that has been nestled within the historic neighborhood of Gramercy for over eighty years.

It was founded in 1940 by a group of Greek immigrants seeking a space to practice their faith, as well as one to house community gatherings. Thus, Saint John’s became a place to commune with the holy, and where one could feel connectedness and community–to feel at home, while far from home. A group put together all the money they could spare and purchased part of the space that once was a public house with the initial use of a strategically placed partition. Along with other interventions, including the integration of iconography, space was later consecrated and has hence functioned as a Greek Orthodox Church, with a small community space in its basement.

Soon thereafter, it became a vital and vibrant presence in its neighborhood. Its doors have been open to all parishioners, as well as to anyone who has felt the need to seek quiet refuge, and a space to feel at peace within the city’s bustling busyness. Eventually, the community began hosting an annual Greek festival on the occasion of the saint’s feast day that remains as a tradition until today! The festival became an event where parishioners and neighbors came to gather together with people from all around New York State to pay a tribute, eat delicious, home-cooked Greek food, and even dance traditional dances on the street directly outside the church and community hall.

This church today, having survived as long as it has, finds itself in dire need of financial support primarily to sustain certain repairs. The community’s immediate goals, after having consulted with construction professionals, address three main concerns:

1.       First and foremost, emphasis must be given to repairing the roof. This is vital in protecting the interior and the icons hanging inside while creating a safe and healthy worshiping, and gathering space.
The lowest estimate we have received so far is $20,000.

2.       Secondly, we seek to clean and restore the facade returning it to its original state, and the one most in line with the neighborhood’s historicity. Few neighborhoods offer such beautiful examples of classic New York brownstones as Gramercy does. Saint John’s community desires to return to that as soon as possible. Aside from re-integrating to the historical style of the neighborhood, it calls home, this will also help seal out additional humidity currently eroding the church’s interior. We are still accepting estimates for this project.

3.       Thirdly, the community, aims to remove the currently moldy wood paneling that was added later on to the interior of the temple, also called the naos. After removing the paneling, the goal is to clean the original brick of the interior walls, re-hang all the historic icons in their original places, and install basic spot-lighting that will bring out their beauty within the overall simplicity of the church interior.
We received various estimates for this project with the lowest being $250,000.

Being a small community, after the majority of the Greek population left the tenements and relocated to other areas of New York after the 60s, finances have been tough. With the pandemic still ravaging our city, things became even tougher.

We are thankful to our community. Everyone contributes what they can whether financially or in the form of personal labor, or both! While that helps, it is far from enough to sustain the financial weight of all three of these impending, vital projects.

And we call on you to offer whatever you find possible within your hearts and abilities to help us maintain this historic space and community that is so strongly integrated within the fiber of its neighborhood. We ask for help in maintaining the memory of a community founded by immigrants who sacrificed all they could for its creation. We are so thankful for any financial help you can provide us in keeping the activity and offerings of this community alive so that we can continue to offer services, counseling, a sense of community, and a taste of Greek culture to you all!



His Eminence, Archbishop Elpidophoros with Rev. Hieromonk Ioannikios at the entrance of the Church of Saint John.

Rev. Hieromonk Ioannikios delivering his sermon.

A deacon reading the Gospel during Holy Liturgy.


Meet our community through this video

http://www.stjohn.ny.goarch.org/
 

Organizer

SaintJohn ChurchNYC
Organizer
New York, NY

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