Nestled between towering William James Hall and boxy Gund Hall sits a diminutive Gothic chapel of the tiny Swedenborgian faith.

On a rainy Sunday morning, the Reverend Sarah Buteux starts her sermon Oprah-style, talking about personal growth and walking out among the 17 parishioners who have assembled for the church’s weekly service.

But she cuts her talk short this week, returning to the podium at the front of the chapel and telling the congregation that she will not be delivering the main sermon.

A guest preacher, visiting from a Swedenborgian church in Maine, will take over on the main sermon, she tells the parishioners, so that she can spend an extra hour organizing the chapel’s fundraising efforts.

For nearly four decades, the congregation has been fighting to hold on to its home, but in the past few years the fight has reached a feverish pitch.

According to the terms of a mortgage negotiated in 2000 with the Swedenborgian national seminary, the congregation faced a bill of $2 million to be paid in full by the end of this month—or they would risk losing their chapel.

Right now, they have raised about a quarter of a million dollars—just about enough to cover the interest on the mortgage.

But recent developments—chief among them a six-month extension on the mortgage deadline—have given the chapel’s congregation new hope.

The extension will give the congregation much-needed time to raise the money, says Lars-Erik Wiberg, the president of the Church Council and a member of the congregation for the past 20 years.

“The situation right now is somewhat relieved…we’re very grateful. It doesn’t look like we would have made it by the

end of this month,” Wiberg says.

But the extension also means that the congregation will have to pay interest on the $2 million for another six months—another major hardship.

“The question is whether or not we can afford to,” Buteux writes in an e-mail. “Though, with our fundraising where it is we really can’t afford not to.”

In the meantime, the church is struggling to raise the remaining millions. The Swedenborgians’ original fundraising plan—to create a board of governors for the church and sell endowed chairs for $500,000—did not meet with much success.

“No one [at Harvard], like the United Ministry or the Divinity school, has shown interest,” Wiberg says.