BAYONNE -- Despite the distant rumble of a thunderstorm and a heavy mist over New York Harbor, community leaders, religions leaders and residents of the area gathered at Harbor View Park in Bayonne to mark the 12th anniversary of the terrorists’ attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Armed with glow sticks instead of candles, several hundred people gathered under the massive Zorbas Tsereteli’s 100-foot tall “To Struggle Against World Terrorism” for an interfaith service.

In a time full of political tension and hostility between the United States and Russia over an ongoing civil war in Syria, this gathering in this place seemed extremely apt, since the art work – often called the “Tear Drop Memorial” was a gift from the people of Russia to the United States after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001.

Rev. Gregory Perez, of Trinity Parish, who was among the religious leaders who spoke, called the tear drop the tear of God and the gathering a sign of hope for the future.