Bishop Kallistos came to the United States in 1905 to serve as the first priest of St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church in Pueblo, CO. In late 1915, he left Colorado for San Francisco and served as priest at Holy Trinity.
Bishop Kallistos became the first bishop of San Francisco on August 7, 1927. His office was at St. Sophia. During the depression Greeks in San Francisco could not support a bishop so he moved his office to Chicago where there was a much larger Greek population. He served until 1940.
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Bishop Kallistos Papageorgapoulos A Formal Portrait (SF Greek Orthodox Metropolis) 1927 - Fr. Caravellas (standing), Archbishop Alexandros (seated left), Bishop Kallistos (seated right)
The Russians already had a bishop in San Francisco prior to the Greek bishop. You can go to the OCA website for details. Russia was in chaos at the time due to the Communist revolution. The immigration to the Americas produced multiple diocese in one country. This is understandable and a new situation in church history other then the historical example of Greek populations in Italy during the pre-Byzantine and Byzantine era with their own monasteries and maybe their own Greek bishops in Italy.
However, from a canonical standpoint the First Ecumenical council stated that there should only be one bishop per a city. The sixth ecumenical council decrees that only a man who is willing to follow the canons is to be elevated to the office of bishop. If you follow the canons and there was already a Russian bishop in San Francisco, then the creation of a Greek bishop in San Francisco was uncanonical.
I NEED HELP IN PRAYER FROM THE HOLE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY,FOR MY SON RAYMOND.FOR 5 YEARS NOW HE IS BEEN FIGHTING A BATTLE OF WHAT DOCTORS SAY IS A MENTAL ILLNESS NAMED PARANOIA SCHIZOPHRENIA.I KNOW GOD DID NOT CREATED RAYMOND LIKE THAT.RAYMOND SAYS ‘ I AM NOT SICK’.RAYMOND IS A PHYSICS MAJOR, GRADUATED IN 2005 SAN DIEGO STATE.HE KNOWS IT IS NOT GOD DOING THAT.HE THINKS SOME ONE WITH LOTS OF INFLUENCE TRY’S TO GET HIM OUT OF THE WAY OR EVEN DEAD.HE ALSO WORKED FOR THE UNITED AUTO WORKER UNION SA ORGANIZER DURING AND AFTER COLLEGE UNTIL END OF 2006.THEN HE WANTED TO GO ON TO GRAD SCHOOL. THEN IN SPRING OF 2007 OUR LIFES CHANGED.I AM SURE GOD HAS A PLAN.BUD WHY DO I FEEL LIKE I AM LOOSING MY CHILD