Members of a local church spent the weekend celebrating paying off the mortgage for the building they worship in.

The Mount Hebron Baptist Church on East 233rd Street has been in its current building since 1995, when its old church burned down. It has taken the members 13 years to pay off the mortgage for their ?new? building ? and it is an accomplishment they are ecstatic to celebrate.

?We were able to pay off our mortgage in August and this is a hallelujah day ... it's a rejoicing day," Loree Reed, a parishioner, says.