Felix Arroyo joins chorus to aid historic church

Boston City Councilor Felix Arroyo, who belongs to Roxburys Charles Street AME Church, is joining a growing chorus of politicians calling on the congregations lender not to foreclose on the historic property.

Arroyo, a city councilor at large, has written Boston-based OneUnited Bank to ask the lender to halt plans to seize the church on March 22.

I clearly have a relationship with the church, but its also just the concept (of foreclosing on an historic house of worship) that I oppose, Arroyo told the Herald. This is a church that is very active not just in a moral sense, but also in the life of the city.

Charles Street AME, which dates back to 1818 and has been in Roxbury since 1939, faces foreclosure after failing to make a $1.1 million balloon mortgage payment due last fall.

The church claims it never missed a payment before, but couldnt refinance when the balloon payment came due because of a separate lawsuit OneUnited has filed.

The bank sued Charles Street AME in 2010 over a $3.6 million construction loan taken out to build an adjacent community center.

The bank cut off funding for the project in 2009, leaving construction unfinished.

The church claims thats made it impossible to hold fund-raisers, rent out the center for weddings and do other things the congregation planned to do to generate money.

Local politicians have been rallying to the churchs aid since the Herald last week first reported that OneUnited planned to foreclose.

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino and three other city councilors have backed Charles Street AME in recent days.

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Felix Arroyo joins chorus to aid historic church