The former rector of the Church of the Holy Faith engaged in “gross sexual and financial misbehavior as a clergyman in charge of the parish,” according to a document submitted in response to a breach-of-contract suit filed by the Episcopal priest in August.
The Rev. Dale Coleman is suing the church for violating a severance agreement signed in May 2007 as he was leaving the parish after 11 years.
The Palace Avenue congregation had agreed to pay Coleman $115,000 in a dozen monthly installments beginning in June 2007. The money was to be divided between Coleman and his former wife, with Coleman to receive $50,002 and Susan Coleman, $64,998.
The church halted the payments with four of them remaining, informing Coleman that the severance agreement did not have “any legal effect” because of “serious misrepresentations and omissions.”