St. Albans church trying to rise from the ashes

From the NY Times:

When a fire ravaged the Prince of Peace Missionary Baptist Church in Queens one winter day, the pastor of the small congregation vowed to rebuild. That was in 1997. Ten years later, a new building large enough to accommodate 250 worshipers, three times the congregation’s size, had risen on the site in St. Albans.

For more than two years, the church’s new brick building has stood as nothing but a vacant shell with boarded-up windows and a scraggly lawn.

But this is not a feel-good story of destruction and rebirth.

For more than two years, the church’s new brick building has stood as nothing but a vacant shell, with its boarded-up windows and scraggly lawn in stark contrast to the well-kept homes on the rest of the block. The congregation, led by the Rev. Arthur Harris, now holds services in a rented storefront that once housed a barbershop.

The church has run into financial problems that have left the construction project in limbo.

The church had been promised a loan by Community Capital Bank in Brooklyn, but the deal fell through when the bank was acquired by Carver Federal Savings Bank, the minister said.