A former reverend at a Manhattan Presbyterian church is accused of sending inappropriate photos and asking for oral sex from a female pastor who he helped get a job, according to a new lawsuit filed this week. When the pastor, Reverend Grace Nzameyo Maa, filed a complaint to church officials with the Presbytery of New York City, a group of dozens of churches in the five boroughs, the church and reverend iced her out of working as a pastor in the city, according to the court papers filed Tuesday.
Nzameyo, a New Jersey resident and former Manhattan pastor, is accusing the Presbytery of New York City of retaliating against her for coming forward about being sexually harassed by her boss, Reverend Charles Atkins, Jr., according to a lawsuit filed in Manhattan supreme court this week. Shortly after Nzameyo accepted a formal part-time position as a pastor at the Presbytery's French Evangelical Church in Chelsea, Atkins allegedly began expecting sexual favors in return for helping her get the job, the lawsuit says.
Beginning in September 2018, Atkins allegedly urged Nzameyo to engage in a sexual relationship with him as his mistress, calling her "beautiful," and inviting her to a hotel to talk about her new position, according to the lawsuit.
"Grace, you're giving me a headache," he allegedly told her that fall, according to the complaint papers. "I gave you this ordination I want you to be with me as my mistress."
For months, Nzameyo told Atkins to stop and rejected him, but she says he "grew increasingly frustrated and began retaliating against" her, the lawsuit reads. He allegedly told her that he would "humiliate you in front of the entire congregation" if she didn't comply.
"The first time that happened, I was blown away," Nzameyo told Gothamist in a phone interview. "I was like, 'Reverend Atkins, you are my brother, you know that right? I met your family, you met my family. I met your parents. I buried your father. There is no way I could be your mistress, your girlfriend.'"
For the next several months after Nzameyo rejected him, Atkins sent her photographs of his genitals, the lawsuit alleges.
In another instance, he allegedly groped her buttocks, while saying, "I'd like to get a blowjob from a cute pastor like you."
"I know you Africans don't like to give blowjobs," he allegedly said.
Nzameyo first met Atkins in 2015, where she found a sense of community among the French-speaking congregants, many whom were from her own home country of Cameroon, at the French Evangelical Church.
"To me, the church is a sacred place, a place where you go to cry, a place where you go when you're looking for hope, a place where you go when you're afraid, a joyful place," she said.
But due to the alleged sexual harassment she faced, the church had become "a place of sorrow, a place of pain, a place of anxiety and depression," Nzameyo said. "I was rejected by own people—the people that are supposed to protect me and be kind and loving and compassionate and carry the love of Jesus Christ and show where justice is supposed to be."
The harassment only worsened when Nzameyo rejected Atkins's advances, the lawsuit alleges. Atkins would call her a "stupid bitch" just out of earshot of others, while certain elders of the church in support of Atkins tried to turn other worshipers against her, calling her a "witch" causing division within the church, the lawsuit alleges.
The Presbytery of New York City, the French Evangelical Church, and Atkins—all named in the lawsuit—allegedly retaliated by not allowing her to preach or preform other pastoral duties during services, determining she was not permitted to be a pastor at presbyterian churches without permission from the Committee of Ministry, and questioning her credentials despite her previous work.
She filed a complaint in February 2019, alleging Atkins committed sexual misconduct.
Three months later, Atkins resigned from the church, according to the Presbytery. (The lawsuit alleges he was actually fired.)
The Presbytery of NYC eventually filed charges of sexual abuse and violations of other church regulations against Atkins more than a year later, in March 2020.
When reached by the phone on Tuesday, Atkins denied the sexual misconduct allegations.
"This lawsuit is completely frivolous," said Atkins, who is now a chaplain supervisor for New Jersey prisons, according to his LinkedIn. "It's wrong."
"I was trying to not fight with them because that's not what church is about. But the allegations are completely false," Atkins said.
"Her reputation is going to be seriously hurt by this whole thing," Atkins said, claiming he had texts and emails to show it was all "made up" and that she and other elders "conspired" to oust him from the church. He did not specify what he was referring to, and his lawyer did not respond to an email.
But according to the lawsuit, earlier this year, Atkins alleged to the Presbytery's investigating committee that Nzameyo had sent him pornographic text messages of herself. But when she reviewed them, Nzameyo "noticed that many of these photographs and messages were fabricated," of other people, or of "innocuous photos that she had posted on social media that were being misrepresented" by Atkins.
Reverend Dr. Robert Foltz-Morrison, the executive presbyter at the Presbytery of New York City, denied the Presbytery retaliated against Nzameyo.
In a statement, Foltz-Morrison said: "The Presbytery did not retaliate against his accuser; her employment as a minister had not been undertaken properly according to the [policy] of the Presbyterian Church."
He also said after Atkins resigned from the Presbyterian Church, the church could no longer investigate the case through its own judicial process.
"These allegations were investigated by the Presbytery of New York City," Foltz-Morrison said. "Before the matter could be heard by the Presbytery’s permanent judicial commission—our equivalent of a court—the minister renounced the jurisdiction of the church. This means that he ceased to be a minister of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and that the church could no longer investigate or try him in its courts. It is now solely in the secular court system."
The French Evangelical Church, on West 16th Street, did not return a request for comment.
Nzameyo currently preaches at a church in New Jersey, where she isn't compensated since it is her home church. She's not permitted to work at churches in the five boroughs under the Presbytery of New York City due to the alleged retaliation. But the trauma from the experience has prevented her from seeking other pastoral positions.
"I am still emotionally stressed, and I am not ready," she said. "I am still in a state where I cannot stay in a room with a man, only me and a man, that is not my brother or my husband or someone that I trust 100 percent."
Her lawyer, Lawrence Pearson, said the reverend "did not ultimately get justice through the church's process."
"Instead, she continues to be suffering the effects of retaliation that she was subjected to," Pearson added.
Nzameyo, currently studying at the New Brunswick Theological Seminary for her PhD, is seeking unspecified monetary damages under the state's human rights law for gender discrimination and retaliation.
"This civil lawsuit is for justice, is for my two daughters, is for the other women out there that are fighting for justice," she said. "I was hoping that this does not happen in the church. But I was wrong to think that."
