Bishop Charles H. Ellis III, the longtime senior pastor of the nearly 6,000-member Greater Grace Temple in Detroit, Michigan, has admitted to engaging in an “inappropriate relationship” with a former member who accused him on social media of having an extramarital relationship with her from 2002 to 2018.
“I was recently made aware of social media posts shared by a former member of my congregation, with whom I had an inappropriate relationship over 15 years ago,” the 67-year-old Ellis, who is married, said in a statement provided to The Christian Post on Tuesday.
“These posts include accusations, some of which are deeply troubling and untrue. Given the nature of several false claims being made I have asked my legal counsel, Atty. Gerald Evelyn, to carefully review all matters, in particular a joint bank account with my name on it.”
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Ellis, who is married and fathered three children — one of whom is deceased — with his wife, Crisette Michelle Ellis, stated that his “indiscretions” with the former member were addressed with his bishop “in a redemptive process, which included counseling.”
The former Greater Grace Temple member, writing under the user name Melodicstory on TikTok, claims she was in an “on-and-off” intimate relationship with Ellis for 16 years from 2002 until 2018.
“For a long time I feared for my life just to share my story. For a long time I wanted to protect him because I loved him. But the more mature I grew into loving myself. I found out, this wasn’t love at all! It was an exploitation of my need, my brokenness and weakness,” she wrote in one post.
“I suffered greatly behind his lack of righteous leadership and I am still healing and making sense of my experience. Many ppl judge women, when men of prominence and influence prey on young women and call it ‘benevolence.’ I’m ready to tell my story and how God brought me out of the counterfeit narrative the enemy wanted to plant in my life,” she stated in her posts.
The former member claims that when she met Ellis in 2002, she was a young, vulnerable single mother.
She noted in one post that in 2002, when she was 22, Ellis “christened my baby in his office b/c I wasn’t married and this is the inception of the relationship.”
After years of processing the relationship she had with Ellis, the former congregant said she realized that she had suffered spiritual abuse and confronted him about it in 2023.
“He refuses to walk in truth and acknowledge his wrong. He is pompous swine. This isn’t about money. My soul was on the line. He’s someone I cared about that I had to realize exploited me emotionally and spiritually. I often thought how my life would’ve been different had he ‘fathered’ me righteously,” she wrote.
“Even when he was my so-called sugar daddy, God allowed it for a time. I believe he needed love. But, when I grow up and loved myself I understood the damage it caused me and my family,” she continued. “He could’ve literally just said ‘I’m wrong and I apologize’ for mismanaging you spiritually. If this was about money I could’ve stayed a sidepiece and been quiet. But God revealed to me my value. Not a woman or a Man. GOD!”
In a bid to verify her claims, the woman made multiple posts on TikTok showing her connection to Ellis, including photos, screenshots of text messages and bank statements suggesting she held joint financial accounts with the pastor.
Ellis was asked by CP to respond to specific claims made by the former member. He was also asked to state when his relationship with the woman ended, how long his restoration process lasted, and whether he stepped away from his pulpit during that time.
The bishop’s spokesperson, Mario Morrow of Mario Morrow & Associates, LLC, told CP Tuesday, “We are not commenting further at this time.”
Ellis’ accuser is now promoting a tell-all book about her relationship with the bishop, which she has titled The Bishop, His Wife, and Me.
“In 2007, the Lord gave me the title of this book — long before I had the courage to tell the story. What began as a love that I thought was everything became the divine doorway that led me into truth, self-love, revelation, healing, and an unshakable relationship with the Holy Spirit,” she wrote in a post about the book. “This is more than a testimony. It’s my life — raw, true, and redeemed.”
In 2018, when Ellis’ accuser claims her relationship with the bishop finally ended, he was forced to apologize to singer Ariana Grande for what many members of the public interpreted as inappropriate touching after she performed at the funeral service for Aretha Franklin on Aug. 31 that year.
“It would never be my intention to touch any woman’s breast. … I don’t know I guess I put my arm around her,” Ellis told The Associated Press. “Maybe I crossed the border, maybe I was too friendly or familiar but again, I apologize.”
Ellis claimed he had been hugging on several performers that day and he treated them the same regardless of sex.
“I hug all the female artists and the male artists,” he said. “Everybody that was up, I shook their hands and hugged them. That’s what we are all about in the church. We are all about love.”
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