After weeks of near silence, OneUnited Bank fired back Thursday at the Charles Street African Methodist Episcopal Church in the messy dispute between two of the most prominent institutions in Boston’s black community, accusing the church of “gross, severe financial mismanagement.’’  The bank’s remarks came during a hearing in US Bankruptcy Court in Boston on the church’s request for Chapter 11 protection to avoid OneUnited’s foreclosure on its property for failure to repay a $1.1 million loan. A lawyer for OneUnited said church officials were to blame for their inability to repay Charles Street’s loans, not the bank.  A foreclosure auction had been scheduled for Thursday but was canceled.  OneUnited lawyer Liam Vesely said church allegations that the bank had refused to work out the loan were unfair.  Vesely said OneUnited’s principals, including chairman Kevin Cohee, had met with church officials at their request back in 2010, after the bank had sued the church over a separate, $3 million construction loan.  Vesely noted that Charles Street’s pastor, the Rev. Gregory G. Groover, did not attend that meeting. (Church trustees and lawyers did.) He said a proposal to work on the loan had come out of the meeting but that no progress was made after that.  The bank’s relationship with Charles Street started to sour around 2009, Vesely said. “The church became less cooperative with the bank,’’ he said, and would not supply requested financial documents. He said most of the church’s loan payments over the years had been late.  Vesely also suggested that OneUnited was outraged by an offer in 2010 from a group of investors and philanthropists to buy out the construction loan at about 30 cents on the dollar. The bank, he said, “got blindsided’’ and was “understandably taken aback.’’  A lawyer representing the church’s district organization, Chad Dale, sought to rebut the bank’s charges. Dale pointed to OneUnited’s own problems, noting that the bank is under a cease-and-desist order from bank regulators, due to poor lending standards and excessive pay.  After more than an hour of hearing from both sides, federal Judge Frank Bailey called the fight an “unfortunate dispute’’ and said the matter would be settled in his court. He said he could not imagine a case where “we couldn’t be more collectively motivated’’ to ensure the survival of a debtor - in this case, a historic church.  In response to the judge’s comment, Vesely said, “The bank’s goal is absolutely not to put Charles Street AME out of business.’’  Also in attendance at the hearing were lawyers for two other church creditors - Tremont Credit Union, which loaned it $450,000 for a new roof in 2009; and Thomas Construction Co., which is owed $629,000 for work on the church’s community center.  Ross Martin, a lawyer for the church, sought and received permission for Charles Street to continue paying for health insurance for church employees, and to pay $4,500 in wages.  It was disclosed that he church has about $15,000 in available cash.
A lawyer for OneUnited Bank said Thursday in US Court that the Charles Street AME Church sought federal bankruptcy protection because of “gross, severe financial mismanagement’’ and not through any fault of the bank, which had been seeking to foreclose on a delinquent loan. The statements were the first extensive comments by OneUnited in the months-long saga over a $1.1 million loan that the Charles St. AME owes the bank and which has sparked an unusually divisive battle between two of Boston’s most prominent black institutions.