Parish History: The 1950's - A Time of Consolodation

Unfortunately, circumstances intruded on the process of change that the parish was experiencing. The Korean Conflict began, and St. Vasilios was again called upon to send its sons into harm’s way. During the four years from 1950 until 1953, 138 men served their country. Of their number, four did not return. Those who did return, however, followed the pattern of their predecessors of the Second World War and became agents of change in the life of the parish.

Changing patterns of leadership also served as a catalyst for the transformation of parish life. On December 31, 1943, Fr. George Economides retired from the active priesthood for reasons of health. His tenure as pastor had lasted for almost 15 years. His wise stewardship and the respect he earned in the community had proved to be a vital, stabilizing and healing influence in the history of the parish. He entered a parish badly divided against itself, but left it united and poised for the future.

The unfolding events of the Second World War had cut off the steady supply of priests coming from Greece to meet the rapidly growing needs of the Greek Orthodox Church in America. In order to ensure the future of the church, a seminary to train native-born young men had been founded in Pomfret, CT by Archbishop Athenagoras. Priests, nonetheless, were in short supply and none could be sent to meet the needs of St. Vasilios in the time immediately following the retirement of Fr. Economides. Fortunately, another retired clergyman living in the area, Fr. Constantine Kacoyiannis, made himself available and served for a little over a year as interim pastor, celebrating liturgies and performing the necessary sacraments. As might be expected, the parish entered a period of quiet stability awaiting the rapidly approaching end to the war.

On January 1, 1945, with the war coming to an end, with veterans returning and the economy growing, the church received a new pastor, the Rev. Fr. Nicholas Paleologos. 

Fr. Nicholas capitalized on the energy and enthusiasm of the parish and began his pastoral work. As the first parish priest of St. Vasilios fluent in English, he was able to establish a number of goals that remained as the hallmarks of his pastorate. He founded a youth program that engaged the young people of the parish and sought to bind them to the church during a time when he sensed that the forces of assimilation that were hard at work might loosen their relationship to the church. He reorganized the Church School and its curriculum and recruited young, enthusiastic teachers to this vital program. In spite of the misgivings of parish elders, he insisted upon religious instruction in English. He founded the first community bulletin and was its editor, again wisely establishing a policy of bilingualism. On June 30, 1949, his pastorate ended, however, and he was transferred to another assignment in the Archdiocese.

His replacement, the Rev. Fr. Constantine Mager, proved to be a controversial successor. Fr. Mager, also English speaking, might best be described as a radical progressive. His theological and pastoral practices were quite liberal, alarmingly so in the view of many parishioners, and tensions were inevitable. While the parish was steadily moving away from the attitudes and ethos of its immigrant founders, in the early fifties it was still nonetheless relatively conservative in liturgical practice and in its adherence to social traditions. Fr. Mager’s attempts to literally catapult the parish into what he perceived to be the inevitable future met with considerable resistance, and on October 30, 1952, he left St. Vasilios to take up a new assignment.

After Fr. Mager’s departure, the parish welcomed the Rev. Fr. Alexander Xanthakis as its new pastor. Fr. Xanthakis had arrived in America some years before at the invitation of Archbishop Athenagoras. Before his arrival here, he had served in the distinguished post of Archdeacon of the Metropolis of Kalamata for many years. Fr. Xanthakis arrived from the parish of St. Anagyroi in Marlborough, MA, and was a marked contrast with his immediate predecessor.

Fr. Xanthakis was a theological and pastoral conservative and undoubtedly one of the finest liturgists of his day. Possessed of a beautiful voice, he had an unmatched command of church music and encouraged young men to take their places at the chanters’ stand to perpetuate those precious Orthodox musical traditions. During the years of his pastorate, he assiduously cultivated in the parish an appreciation for the traditions of worship unique to Holy Orthodoxy.

Fr. Xanthakis, while very much a traditionalist and theological conservative, was nonetheless a temperate progressive in pastoral practice. It was during the years of his pastorate that a second priest was added. Each of those priests, young and English speaking, was given the responsibility of preaching in the youth service and otherwise meeting the needs of the younger members of the growing congregation. The priests who served with him in this capacity included the Rev. John Romanides, the Rev. Harry Magoulias and the Rev. George Economou, all of whom went on to render distinguished service in the Archdiocese of America.

Fr. Xanthakis was also very supportive of a new development in the church’s history in which increasing numbers of American-born young men were serving as church trustees and gradually supplanting the original immigrant church elders who were inevitably passing from the scene. During his pastorate, he forged a wonderful working relationship with these young men and encouraged their efforts to prepare for the future.

One such young man, Louis Karavolas, offered particularly distinguished service and established himself in parish history as one of the great presidents of St. Vasilios. He gained attention when he was elected as an officer of the St. Vasilios Veterans’ organization in 1952. His enthusiasm and hard work were not lost on Fr. Xanthakis who encouraged him to run for the church board of trustees. After his election, he demonstrated the same extraordinary ability to accomplish difficult tasks and to exercise leadership. In 1955, Mr. Karavolas was elected president, a position he served for three remarkable years.

Immediately upon becoming president, he reminded the members of the parish that the following year would mark the 50th anniversary of the parish’s founding. Wanting to mark this occasion in a way he felt would be appropriate, he launched a dynamic program of preparation.

Together with Fr. Xanthakis, he focused enormous energy and effort on a fund raising campaign to completely restore and refurbish the church. Working with a contagious enthusiasm, he raised funds to paint both the interior and exterior of the church, to install new stained glass windows in the nave, to replace the original pews installed in 1931, to add icons and ornamentation to the church interior and to install a new pulpit, bishop’s throne and chanters’ stand. As these projects neared completion, he called upon the church council and the community at large to begin planning for the impending 50th anniversary of the parish’s founding.

The anniversary celebration consisted of a grand banquet and the publication of a fund-raising commemorative album. At the banquet more than 400 persons were in attendance, and the group was addressed by a large contingent of prominent civic leaders including Congressman William Bates and Mayor Philip C. O’Donnell. The Archdiocese was represented by his Grace, Bishop Athenagoras of Elaia, then Auxiliary Bishop of Boston and Dean of Holy Cross School of Theology, who was later elected the Archbishop of Thyateira and Great Britain. Between the banquet and the commemorative album, more than $18,000 was raised. Although not a small sum by the standards of the day, it was all the more remarkable in view of the heavy fund raising that had occurred the preceding year for the restoration of the church. Most significant of all, perhaps, was what might rightfully be called a historic decision, the vote of the Parish Council to place the proceeds in a special account to be used “in the future for the construction of a much needed parish and educational center.”

In addition to the restoration of the church and celebration of the golden jubilee of its founding, the decade of the fifties also marked another historic milestone in 1955 when the St. Vasilios P.T.A. (Parent Teachers’ Association) established a parish scholarship program. At that time, a single scholarship in the amount of $100 was awarded to Georgia Persinos, its first recipient. At the same time, the P.T.A. women made a decision of critical importance-to dedicate themselves to the establishment of a scholarship endowment that would assure that scholarships, once established, would be awarded in perpetuity. Through more than 50 years of extraordinary effort and the generous gifts of countless benefactors, the scholarship program has grown to currently award a total of 37 scholarships in an annual amount which totals $38,500.

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