Associated Press Article

By JAY LINDSAY

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) _ For more than a century, the tiny Swedenborg Chapel has been surrounded by the stately environs of Harvard University. If it doesn't make a $2 million payment by the end of March, it may well be absorbed by them.

The church, with just 40 active members, still has more than three-quarters of the payment to raise after 21 months of trying. If it fails, the congregation will likely cease to exist and the property placed on the open market, with Harvard getting first crack at the land.

"I don't know how it's going work out," said the Rev. Sarah Buteux, the church's pastor. "But I do have faith the church is going to survive."

The payment is required as part of a two-year mortgage agreement between the congregation and the Swedenborgian House of Studies, a
seminary belonging to the same small denomination that owns the
property. The deal was struck to give the congregation a last chance
to own the chapel.

The congregation is pinning its hopes on a newly created board
of trustees, whose prospective members are being asked to pay
$500,000 each for the privilege of sitting on the board. Six
Swedenborg foundations and organizations and Harvard have been
invited to join. The board will control a new building planned for
the property, as well as various outreach and church activities.

A half-million dollars is a high price for that privilege, but
church members offer a different perspective.

For the Swedenborg church, with just 7,000 members nationwide
and 30,000 worldwide, the money could save perhaps its most
prominent landmark, Buteux said.

For Harvard, $500,000 is a relatively cheap way to ensure
control over a property they'd have to buy for more than $4 million
on the open market, according to Lars-Erik Wiberg, president of the
church council.

"Five-hundred thousand dollars for the protection of that
property, to me, is a buy," he said.

Mary Power, Harvard's director of community relations, said the
university hadn't made a decision about the chapel's $500,000
invitation, and wants to sit down with church officials to discuss
that plan and any other alternatives. Harvard officials toured the
church Tuesday.

Harvard doesn't want to buy the property, Power added, though it
could become interested if a prospective owner wants to build
something that doesn't fit in on campus.

"The congregation has been a very comfortable neighbor," Power
said. "The university is interested in seeing the congregation
succeed."

The stone, English Gothic-style chapel sits on about a quarter
acre, surrounded by Harvard-owned property. The chapel, built in
1901, was designed by Langford Warren, founder of the Harvard School
of Design, now located next door. The chapel counts the psychology
pioneer William James and Helen Keller, who attended Radcliffe,
among its early congregants.

The Swedenborg church, also called The Church of the New
Jerusalem, believes Jesus Christ is God's son and the redeemer of
the world, but differs from other Christian churches in the belief
that salvation is found in any religion that acknowledges one god
and teaches loving your neighbor as yourself.

The chapel's current fight for survival is just its most recent.
In the 1960s, the seminary sold land with the chapel on it to
Harvard. The congregation objected, and a Supreme Judicial Court
ruling allowed them to maintain control of the chapel, while the
rest of the land went to Harvard. The ruling also gave Harvard first
crack at the parcel, if the congregation couldn't buy it.

In 1999, the seminary explored a $3.3 million deal with a
developer who planned to turn the property into an 11-story
apartment building. But he backed off after the community worked to
designate the building an historic landmark and change the zoning to
restrict the building height.

The seminary still wanted to sell, so denomination leaders
arranged a mediation that produced the current deal, with the church
agreeing to pay $2 million for the building and $200,000 interest by
March 31.

"We want the chapel to stay part of the denomination and that's
why we gave them two years to work to fundraise to come up with the
money," said Jane Siebert, chair of the seminary's board of
trustees.

"We have to look out for the financial needs of the school at
the same time we appreciate the work that the society has done for
the past two years to raise the money."

With only about $277,000 raised so far, a huge challenge
remains, but Wiberg said support from Harvard, other churches, and
even the seminary makes it seem like the odds aren't so long.

"It's not David versus Goliath, because the Goliaths are all
friendly," Wiberg said. "Something has got to come out of this good
will."