Upset and angered at the back lash from the parish, Gepert wrote Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori saying, "I have invoked our diocesan canon (14) to declare the parish "distressed" and taken steps to correct the problems through a change in leadership, education and business practices."

Gepert is said to believe there is a lack of transparency in the parish's finances and has ordered an independent audit. He believes the parish has failed to pay duly assessed Diocesan apportionments or assessments as evidenced by the parish not increasing its support of the diocese proportionately each year.

Before Holmgren arrived in 2007, the parish pledged $60,000 to $75,000 a year to the diocese. After Holmgren arrived, the diocesan pledge has been steadily reduced with each successive year. This past year's pledge was $25,000. Because Grace's pledge was so low, the Bishop cut his own staff significantly, a source has told VOL. The bishop has demanded that the 2010 budget be reordered to include the minimum increase of the parish's diocesan apportionment to $39,835.00. He demanded that the parish must increase it proportionally until the full apportionment is paid in 2012.

The bishop also ordered an independent audit of the parish's books for 2009.

However, Ken Ross, the church's Treasurer reported that revenue began to decline in 2007 and has continued to drop in proportion to the meltdown in the national economy. "This is a phenomenon that has affected all churches nationwide and is not unique to Grace. In 2008, expenditures exceeded revenues by approximately $45,000.

Last year, revenue exceeded expenditures by about $20,000. Revenues include both pledge income and endowment income." Ross said that efforts have been underway since 2009 to bring the parish's accounts into compliance with National Church standards.

Parish anger has simmered and spilled over almost since the beginning of Holmgren's tenure in the parish.

In March, parishioner Nan Campau complained bitterly in a letter she sent to Gepert and the Presiding Bishop about Holmgren's six-figure salary ($115,000), an incredible benefits package and an $80,000 interest free loan given to Holmgren to use as a down payment for his "big house."

"Two Vestry members, J.C. Veen and Tom DeLong, also took exception to the salary, the benefits package, and the money for his house, and Stephen Holmgren made their lives miserable," she wrote. According to Campau, Holmgren threatened to sue J.C. just as he threatened to sue a choir member.

"This sweet choir member, whose mother happened to be an Episcopal Deacon, had the misfortune of missing two consecutive weeks due to the death of her grandmother and the flu. This rector called her not to give his condolence but to demand to know why she had not been in church, and what she had heard and from whom. And he would sue her if she did not tell him what she had heard and from whom. All of them, Tom, J.C., the choir member along with their families have left Grace Church because of what Stephen Holmgren did to them directly."

She said Holmgren dug up obscure church "rules" which he [Holmgren] used to justify refusing the sacraments of the church to long time parishioners. "Twins were born three months prematurely to one very wealthy prominent couple and Stephen Holmgren refused to baptize these fragile babies. The couple, along with the babies' grandmother (a long time Grace member), has left Grace. She said Holmgren refused the sacrament of Christian burial to members that he felt didn't come to church often enough.

Campau outlined a litany of complaints against Holmgren concluding with his most telling flaw, which is that he refuses to do any pastoral work at all. "He has hired another priest, Fr. Jim Croom from Holy Trinity, to visit our sick and shut-ins. This is a man, who shortly after his arrival, told us from the pulpit that it was difficult for him to "soar like an eagle" when he was "surrounded by turkeys" like us. I have a copy of this wonderful sermon."

(Fr. Jim Croon has since resigned to go to his own parish. Holy Trinity in Wyoming, MI was able to hire him full time because their membership increased). Campau said that since Holmgren's arrival, church members have steadily left Grace Church and/or stopped their financial support. "Two weeks ago, Fr. Joe and Jeanne Howell left Grace church. Their loss is significant. This week I will leave Grace also. I have worshipped here for 18 years (17 in the choir), but this is not my church any longer. Last Sunday the choir consisted of 9 people - 4 of whom are paid singers. Today, the choir consisted of 8 people. The choir has lost nearly 12 members since Stephen Holmgren's arrival."

A source has told VOL that she believes Gepert is paving the way to let Holmgren go without having to give him much of a financial settlement, thus allowing the bishop to get his hands on the parish's $2million endowment.

An e-mail campaign by parishioners against Fr. Holmgren began almost immediately after he arrived. Rumors of promiscuous homosexuality and perversion prompted a detailed 10-year background check by an independent investigating agency on behalf of the diocese, which found nothing to prevent him from getting the job.

The "forced sabbatical" and ultimate removal of Deacon Kathy Brower however caused enormous consternation in the parish with charges and counter charges being leveled against Holmgren and the bishop.

A letter from Irma and Barton Hogarth to Gepert bluntly said, "...you have made a poor decision that we feel will have lasting consequences. It seems that you and Stephen Holmgren are determined to destroy Grace Church...please do not bother to answer this. We are not interested in any more of your meaningless (sic) rhetoric."

The bishop however replied saying it was his business. The Hogarth's replied saying, "Thank you for your letter to tell us to mind our own business. Grace Church happens to be our business. And we are well aware of the canons that give you power over the deacons to [move] them around like puppets. We thought it was the job of the bishop to make thoughtful and intelligent decisions. This decision was neither."

Another parishioner James Walters wrote to Fr. Holmgren over the removal of Brower. He stated, "These actions have been full of lies and deceit, which continue to this day as you hide behind the Bishop's robes..."

Holmgren was charged of "relieving" some parishioners of their volunteer committee responsibilities. (When Glory Meyer, an extremely active volunteer in the parish, began attending Saturday evening services at another parish due to changes in her employment and caring for her elderly mother, Holmgren wrote her a letter saying he was relieving her of all her volunteer responsibilities because she was no longer a member of the parish 'in good standing'.)

At a recent Sunday service, more than 20 people walked out during the offertory hymn because Fr. Holmgren wouldn't let one of the dissolved vestry members speak to the parish to thank them during announcements for the confidence they had put him by electing him. "He was standing there and Fr. Holmgren turned his back to him and motioned for the organist to start the hymn. This is when people began getting up and leaving."

Responding to all the e-mail exchanges and charges, Holmgren sent an e-mail to the parish saying, "The (mis)use of language in the e-mail allows us to rediscover an ancient learning in the western ethical tradition: that character is formed and, hence, that character can be 'de-formed.' "We learn from the New Testament, but also from Aristotle, a basic truth. We can state it like this: acts form character; character (also) forms acts. In other words what we do, shapes who we are and who we are becoming. Who we are also shapes what we do.

"One further insight that is often overlooked in our highly individualistic culture: the actions of an individual shapeand affect the character of the community; and, the character of a community is displayed in the actions of its members...those actions might have a harming effect upon the character of our community."

The parish has a blue blood history. Grace Episcopal Church was the venue for the 1948 marriage of President Gerald Ford, who was a former member of the vestry. The church also served as the venue for Ford's funeral in 2006.

Bishop Robert Gepert is divorced. He has children from a previous marriage, as does his wife. He is currently married to Anne Labat-Gepert.

His diocese is in a financial shambles. His Cathedral, built by the late Bishop Charles Bennison, was sold a few years ago to an evangelical mega church. "The Diocese" consists largely of the Bishop, canon William Spaid and a secretary, as well as several volunteers and is now run out of a rented office suite in Kalamazoo County, MI, known as the "Episcopal Center."

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