A 'Building Available' hangs over the church's entrance. Photo by Kim Chakanetsa/Northattan

Bernard Smith arrived at Harlem’s Mount Moriah Church on Nov. 22, as he had done for the past 20 years. But that week, for the first time, the church’s wooden doors were locked. A notice pasted onto the door said the church’s parishioners would no longer meet at the location where they had gathered for 76 years.

The church was out of money to keep its building. And so, Mount Moriah joined a grim litany of churches across Harlem which have been forced to close in the past three years.

Mount Moriah was a prosperous church. From the late ’60s up until the ’90s, the church arranged regular trips abroad for members to raise money. Puerto Rico, Israel and Canada were some of the places visited. In 1996, the church choir traveled to Brazil where it produced a music CD called “Harlem Sunday.” We did well with it,” recalled Pastor Edward Earl Johnson, who has led the church for the past 35 years.

Through an arrangement with a local agency, the church also says it received up to 300 tourists every Sunday and a donation.  But by the mid 2000s, soaring maintenance costs made it difficult for the church to maintain its upkeep of the handsome Roman Gothic building.

“It was a dwindling congregation,” said Rob Merker of Merker Advisory Services, which owns the property.  Although the church maintained that it had a congregation of 500, Merker disputed the size of the congregation. “It was about 30 to 40 over 70,” he said. Regardless of these disputed attendance figures, the real issue lay in the financial figures.

In 2005, according to Pastor Johnson, Merker, through RLB 2050 Funding, became the mortgage holder after he loaned the church money. Documents later filed with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York show  that nearly $1.4 million was due Nov. 6, 2006.  On Feb. 16, 2007, after RLB did not receive the full amount due under the agreement RLB took action against Mount Moriah.

What followed between 2007 and 2010 were various attempts at settlement and court proceedings. As of Aug. 3, 2009, the church was said to owe $2,848,617.32, and it declared bankruptcy on March 9 this year.  RLB  foreclosed on the property, seizing it in November.

A sign directing members to an alternative service location is pasted on the church's front doors. Photo by Kim Chakanetsa/Northattan

The shuttering of the church did not come as a complete surprise to all congregants. A member who identified himself as Ozzie said that while he knew of the church’s difficulties, which “had been going on for a little while, I thought we were doing fine.” The final closure of the church caught him unawares, though; he’s the church’s sound engineer, and the changed locks meant that he was unable to retrieve his musical equipment.

For Smith, the closure was unexpected. “My wife started here and she passed away. I kept coming. This is my home. This is where I found the Lord. I put my pot and tithe and all that.” Looking at the bolted doors, Smith added, “When you are closing God’s houses, something wrong.”

God’s house had not completely closed down — that Sunday Mount Moriah’s congregants gathered in a second-floor space in the National Black Theatre, a few blocks down from the church. The mood was surprisingly optimistic. Addressing his displaced congregants, Pastor Johnson said: “Don’t worry about the negative stuff.  Everyone must go through some battles. Victory is on its way.”  Alluding to the difficult environment facing churches in Harlem he said: “Mount Moriah is not the only church in Harlem going through trouble.”

Among some of the churches in Harlem that have closed down in the past three years are Little Flower Baptist Church, Our Lady Queen of Angels Church and Greater Calvary Baptist Church. Johnson says that the majority of his congregation wants to return to 2050 Fifth Ave. “I am trying to find financing. I am hopeful that in the week to come it will come through,” said Johnson.

The Roman Gothic building building was constructed circa 1867. Photo by Kim Chakanetsa/Northattan

The “Welcome to Mount Moriah” sign that previously stood over the church’s wooden doors has been painted over and a replaced with a prominent “Building Available” sign. “The sign may be painted on but it is still Mount Moriah,” Johnson said.  It is uncertain how long it will stay that way. Merker is hoping to sell the building to another church rather than to another real estate developer. Equally uncertain are where Mount Moriah’s congregation will go from here.

On this particular Sunday morning Pastor Johnson took in his new surroundings and was upbeat: “It’s not 2050 but its good enough,” he said to which several congregants responded with a resounding “Amen!”