Harlem church holds mortgage burning ceremony

Ephesus Seventh-Day Adventist Church in central Harlem is so happy to pay off its mortgage, it held a mortgage burning ceremony, the New York Times reported.

The church, at Lenox Avenue and West 123rd Street, had taken out the $550,000 mortgage from the Atlantic Union Revolving Fund,a lender that works with faith-based institutions, to make repairs to the building sustained in a 1969 fire, the Times said.

“We’ve paid it off — praise God,” the Rev. Dedrick Blue, senior pastor at Ephesus, told the Times.

The church now even has a credit of $62.09, Blue said. [NYT]