Greater Grace Temple

01 / The story of this place

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Greater Grace Temple traces its roots to 1927, when Bishop Forbes and a handful of congregants began a small, struggling Pentecostal church that was forced from building to building through the Great Depression, sometimes unable to pay rent. Bishop David L. Ellis Sr. took over the near-bankrupt congregation in 1962 and, over thirty-four years, built it into one of Detroit's largest Pentecostal congregations, envisioning a home campus he called the City of David. His son, Bishop Charles H. Ellis III, succeeded him in 1996 and completed the nineteen-acre City of David complex on West Seven Mile Road in 2002. The church's soaring sanctuary has since hosted some of Detroit's largest funerals: civil rights icon Rosa Parks lay in state here before a seven-hour funeral on November 2, 2005; Aretha Franklin's eight-hour televised homegoing service filled the church on August 31, 2018; and U.S. Representative John Conyers was memorialized here on November 4, 2019. Greater Grace remains an active megachurch under Bishop Ellis's leadership.

1. Founded in 1927 by Bishop Forbes
2. Bishop David L. Ellis Sr. rebuilt the congregation, 1962–1996
3. Moved into the 19-acre City of David complex in 2002
4. Rosa Parks's funeral held here on November 2, 2005
5. Aretha Franklin's funeral held here on August 31, 2018