Local nonprofit and religious leaders who have collaborated to restore St. Augustine’s African Orthodox Church in the heart of Cambridgeport have succeeded in reimagining it as a place for congregating not just around faith, but also “arts, community knowledge, and connection.” But now, they are dealing with shocking allegations about the man who has led St. Augustine’s as its minister for more than a decade.
In the last six months, board members of the nonprofit tasked with the church’s preservation, Black History in Action Cambridge (BHAC), have learned that its long-time minister, Charles Eccles, had been accused by at least three individuals of sexually abusing them as minors. They’ve also come to question whether he is an ordained minister at all. In December, BHAC board members called a vote in which they agreed that Eccles should no longer be leading the church. By this summer, he had been removed from the church’s governing board, the St. Augustine’s Corporation.
A draft statement shared with Cambridge Day announcing these changes references Eccles’s parting ways with the church, which it says was due to “false representations and other serious and disturbing matters,” in reference to the allegations. “Those concerns were brought to Mr. Eccles’s attention, and the St. Augustine’s Board determined that new leadership was necessary to heal and move the church forward,” the document also said…