h in the most
fashionable Back Bay, Boston, offered to grant me the use of his church
any time I wanted to offer the mass as high priest according to the
ritual of the Greek Orthodox Church, if I would only "break off all
relations with Protestant bodies here in America." I have a letter from
this clergyman which is the most astounding fact of his inconsistency,
because he himself is an active member of the Bible Club, a purely
Protestant organization: he invited me to one of their meetings, but he
would not purchase my book to help me to my bread and butter. Another
clergyman, a member of the executive committee of City Missions, Boston,
would not purchase my book, unless I offered myself to be employed by
them at a certain salary, and he gave me his card introducing me to the
chairman of that organization.
Last winter I began to preach to the Greeks at Kneeland street, Boston,
in the open air, and when I went to see the police captain of that
district he promised to co-operate with me and gave me his consent to go
on with my work, but the following Sunday his Lieutenant came up to me,
while I was preaching on the street, he stopped me, on the pretense,
that he was informed of a plot among the Greeks to take my life. And
when I made my complaints to the General Secretary of New England
Missions, he told me that I should have known that Boston is a Catholic
town, and that the police being informed that I was an ex-priest, they
simply would not tolerate me. Horror stricken by this statement I went
to see the captain myself, and the very same man who promised
co-operation, only a few days hence, he stood up in front of my face and
in a savage manner told me that he would not tolerate me to preach on
the streets of Boston.
The names of all concerned are in my possession and open to
investigation by the general public. But I will omit them here for
reasons well understood.
A number of other discouraging instances, only worked together to deeper
impress upon my heart the importance and the excellency of my high
calling. Sooner or later, in the inevitable law of evolution and
universal progress, the Greek nation must be regenerated in spirit and
in truth: and I believe that it is not only a case of courtesy, but,
there is a sense of duty for every true American man and woman to
co-operate in the uplifting of all mankind. As for me I fully appreciate
the privilege to suffer for the benefit of my fellow men, and I can
ho
|