FAITH Issues Final Grant Supporting St. Nicholas Shrine

FAITH: An Endowment for Orthodoxy and Hellenism has issued a grant of $2.57 million in response to a special appeal by Archbishop Elpidophoros and former Archbishop Demetrios, in addition to the prior grant of $14.2 million in April 2020 completing its commitment to the Rebuilding of the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese. As the largest benefactor, the FAITH Endowment has given over $18.7 million to support the construction to rebuild St. Nicholas.

The FAITH Endowment Board issued the following statement: “The grants to St. Nicholas presented a unique opportunity of tremendous historical significance to showcase the Greek Orthodox faith and the story of Greek immigration to the US while preserving the values of our community for future generations. St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine will serve to remind the Greek Orthodox community, New Yorkers and the world that what was lost on 9/11 will always be remembered,”

Founded in 2004 by a group of ten visionary Greek American leaders and philanthropists, FAITH: An Endowment for Orthodoxy and Hellenism is an independent 501(c)(3) organization that supports the development of innovative educational, cultural, and scholarship programs that promote Hellenism, an understanding of the Greek Orthodox faith, and the relationship of the two to America’s history and multicultural landscape for young people.

Since its inception with additional support from its members, FAITH has proudly awarded over 1,650 grants and scholarships to the best and brightest young leaders of the Hellenic-American and Greek Orthodox community through its prestigious FAITH Scholarships for Academic Excellence, FAITH-STEM scholarships, Fulbright-FAITH Scholarship collaboration, and more. Last year, FAITH launched the Strategic Leadership for Transformative Action (SLTA), an executive education certificate course in non-profit management to cultivate clergy and lay leaders of the community in partnership with The Fletcher School at Tufts University.

FAITH, on occasion, has also provided grants for unique projects that showcase historical legacies of Hellenism and the Greek Orthodox faith within the US and around the world.  In response to special appeals from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Archbishop Elpidophoros and former Archbishop Demetrios, FAITH has generously provided lead donor support to projects of symbolic significance including the rebuilding of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church at Ground Zero, the reopening of The Imvros School and development of Patriarchal Institute for Patristic Studies.

For more information on FAITH, their website is thefaithendowment.org