Greek Archdiocese letter to the trustees of the Saint Constantine Bronx parish, dated January 29, 1932, summoning them to a meeting at the Archdiocese the following Wednesday, February 3, 1932 at 8 PM. The subject was a proposed consolidation of multiple Bronx Greek Orthodox parishes into a single, larger community:
“Having in mind the interest, but also the desire expressed by you, that there be formed one united and strong Bronx Community with multiple and stronger Schools rather than just one, we ask you to come to the Archdiocese on February 3, a Wednesday, at 8 PM, for a common meeting.”
“We are going through critical days and we are certain that you sense the sacredness of the mission and that all of you will come without fail.”
The letter is the precursor to the merger that succeeded by October 1932, producing the “United Hellenic Orthodox Community Saints Constantine and Helen” at 809 Westchester Avenue, Bronx. The phrase “multiple and stronger Schools rather than just one” identifies the institutional asset the merger was meant to scale: Greek-language parish schools, which were the principal vehicle for transmitting Greek language, faith, and identity to the second-generation Greek-American children of the 1920s.
The “critical days” language gives a sense of the urgency the Archdiocese felt about consolidating the fragmented Bronx parishes — an urgency that, eighteen months later, would erupt as the December 1933 anti-Athenagoras schism.