More than two decades after a tiny Greek Orthodox church in lower Manhattan was destroyed by the falling south tower of the World Trade Center, that church’s far grander replacement opened to the public this week in an elevated park overlooking the rebuilt trade center’s memorial plaza.

The spiritual leader of the world’s Eastern Orthodox Christians has given his formal blessing to a shrine that will replace a small parish church destroyed during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City.

Even after two decades, the work to rebuild the World Trade Center complex after its destruction in the Sept. 11 attacks is still incomplete.

A ceremonial lighting on Sept. 10 will be a milestone in the reconstruction of the only house of worship to be destroyed on 9/11.