At that time, around 1934, the St. Sophia Church at 245 Valencia Street in San Francisco was in deplorable shape. The reason was obvious. In 1927 when the lots on Pierce and Hayes were sold and the old Valencia Theater was bought and remodeled, the church went into debt far beyond its means. The community carried a heavy first mortgage and a second mortgage. Church attendance was poor and the community could not even collect enough money to pay their priest a living wage, much less the expense of the two mortgages. The late Bishop Kallistos of San Francisco with his headquarters in Chicago came to see me at the restaurant and asked me to talk with him. I must say that he had a sweet personality. He was a person that you could not help but admire and support. He explained to me the financial condition of the church and said that the church was five or six years in arrears in payments on the first mortgage to the Bank of America, which may have still been the Bank of Italy at that time. Those arrearages amounted, all in all, to $93,000, including a second mortgage owed to private parties.

He asked for my assistance, my guidance, my support, and my advice so that we would not lose the church. He wanted to see if we could bring it back to a position where they could have some "breathing room" and continue to operate. I remember distinctly my saying to him, "Your Grace, what can I do? I am not that smart or that big or that wealthy or that influential to be able to help you. You remind me of a captain who has a ship in the middle of the ocean and a big storm is coming on. The ship is about to sink, and he has no place to land and he sends out an SOS for help; but, the nearest ship is so far away that it cannot reach him." He continued pleading with me and told me not to come to a quick decision. He asked me to take the matter seriously and to see if there was anything that I could do or suggest to bring about the help that was needed.

At that time I was active in the AHEPA, in community affairs, in the political field and I had taken an interest in everything around me. I felt that the loss of the church would be bad for the morale of every Greek in San Francisco. I said, "Your Grace, I have an idea. If you consent to call a membership meeting at the church, and if you would request the members to give me complete authority to go to the bank officials and negotiate on behalf of our people, I believe I can get the church some breathing space. I'm not ready to tell you what I will do with the bank, but I'm confident that we have nothing to lose and a lot to gain. So, now it's up to you to see if such authority can be given to me. Without it I will not move. I want no one near me. I want no one to account to. When I get through with the bank I will submit to you and the membership the proposals I made to the bank and their response. Then it would be up to you and the membership to decide what to do." His Grace, God bless him, agreed. A meeting was held at the church hall on Valencia Street, permission was asked, and every member present voted to authorize me to negotiate with the bank.