Memoirs of Peter Boudoures Chapter 26 Fr. Lokis Seeks to Merge the Two Churches

Fr. Basil Lokis

He was a man who knew how to sell and how to convince people. He said to me, "Mr. Boudoures, I don't want you to do anything for me or for Holy Trinity. I want to help you there. But, before I can help you, I want to tell you what I have in mind. When I asked to be transferred here from New York I had no intention of staying on Seventh Street. I have an ambition. I want to see bigger and better things here in San Francisco. I want to confide in you that I also have an ambition to eventually become a bishop. I want to do something big and worthwhile here to show His Eminence, the Archbishop in New York, that this vacant seat of the bishop of San Francisco should be filled and that I am the man who should be appointed. I want to show him that I can help the church, not only here but throughout the west, to increase its membership, build better churches, better schools and to do the things that churches should do."

I asked him how he expected to do it and what he wanted of me. And he said to me, "I want you and some of your friends, the leaders at St. Sophia, to think over the question of joining the two churches. I would like to see the St Sophia and the Holy Trinity joined together, to be governed by one board of trustees. That way people cannot tell me that they belong to the other congregation when they are solicited for funds. In that way we will be able to formulate plans and show the people that we are united. This will allow us to build a large congregation so that we can accomplish the things churches are supposed to accomplish. Unless such things happen here in San Francisco I assure you that I will not stay here indefinitely in the role of priest at Holy Trinity."

His arguments, his talk, his suggestions and his plans had great merit. They took me by surprise. I said, "Father, I'm with you 100%. Give me a little time to talk to some of my friends who are on our 'side of the fence.' Let me explain to them your plan. Let me convince them, one at a time. I don't think it will be very long before we will start working with the hope of achieving the goal you have in mind."

I then talked with my friend and co-worker at the Maison Paul, Jim Baldas, and with Dr. Angel. They both had a lot of influence in the Greek community. I also spoke with Dr. Abramopoulos and John Vellis who were two of our finest businessmen. I also spoke to Chris Katon who was, and still is, manager of the Spreckels Russell Dairy, Angelo Papoulias who was the owner of the Pacific Coast Review Magazine, Peter Papageorge, who at that time owned Stone's Linen Supply Company, and several others who's names I can't remember.

I talked with each of them, told them what we had in mind, and they all agreed. We all decided to tell Father Lokis that we were with him. We agreed to call a meeting to announce our plan for unification and we had great hopes for approval by the members of both communities. In the meantime we continued our drive at St. Sophia so that in the event the plans to unite were not approved, we would sooner or later have enough money to do something about the foreclosure.

Father Lokis likewise started working for the union of the two churches at his community. He brought a few of the people who were active at the Holy Trinity Church to the restaurant and we agreed that we would set a date for both churches to have meetings to vote on the matter. The meeting at St. Sophia would start at 6:30 and as soon as the vote was taken I was to bring the news to Holy Trinity. If it was favorable, I would inform Father Lokis and he would submit the plan to the membership for approval.