wfn.org | Dell stands firm on same-sex unions

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

March 29, 1999	News media contact: Linda Bloom*(212) 870-3803*New York
10-21-71BP{168}

NOTE:  For a detailed account of the March 25-26 trial of the Rev. Greg
Dell, see United Methodist News Service's Web site, at
http://www.umc.org/umns/99/mar/dell.htm on the Internet. Photographs and a
sidebar, UMNS story #169, are available with this report.	

By Linda Bloom and Tim Tanton*

DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. (UMNS) - Despite impending suspension, the Rev. Greg
Dell has declared that signing a pledge to no longer perform same-sex union
ceremonies would be a "violation" of his ministry.

The United Methodist pastor's comment came after a 13-member jury of his
peers found him guilty of conducting such a ceremony last September and
decided that he should be suspended on July 1 until he signed a pledge or
until the church no longer prohibited the action. Retired Bishop Jack Tuell,
who presided over the trial, later amended the date to July 5 to allow Dell
to perform a July 3 wedding ceremony.

The penalty was handed down late on March 26, after two long days of
testimony and deliberation in the sanctuary of First United Methodist
Church. Dell, who is pastor of Broadway United Methodist Church in Chicago,
was convicted of a single charge of  "disobedience to the Order and
Discipline of the United Methodist Church." He said he will consider an
appeal.

In a press conference immediately following the trial's conclusion, Dell
predicted the decision will bring "an incredible amount of pain for an
incredible amount of people way beyond my family," referring in particular
to gay and lesbian United Methodists who have felt less than full acceptance
by the church.

"When one hurts, all hurt in the body of Christ," noted Bishop Joseph
Sprague of the church's Chicago Area. Given the division within the church
on the issue of same-sex union ceremonies, "quite obviously, there was no
decision that could have been made to please everyone."

Despite the verdict, the bishop declared that he continues to consider Dell
"an exemplary pastor whose record of faithfulness is, in my opinion, beyond
reproach."

Sprague, who filed the charge, said he had hoped to frame it in a way to
provide a "teachable moment" for the church. While he believes that
occurred, he added that the trial also has shown the world "the box we have
put ourselves into in this denomination."

He deplored the amount of time, energy and money spent on the trial process
and wondered aloud how many of the poor could have been fed with the $75,000
to $100,000 spent by the Northern Illinois United Methodist Annual
(Regional) Conference.

"I have an idea that God isn't smiling tonight," Sprague said.

The Rev. Stephen Williams, who prosecuted the case for the conference, had
asked the trial court for the most severe penalty available -- revocation of
ordination - but said he considered the suspension to be sufficient. "My
hope was that Greg would reconsider his position," he added.

"It was sheer genius on the trial court's part to come up with such a
Solomon-like penalty," he told United Methodist News Service. "He has three
months of grace to think it over."

Williams, pastor of First United Methodist Church in Franklin Park, believes
the trial's outcome sends a "clear signal" and sets a precedent for other
conferences. "The church has spoken wisely and well and with great
discernment," he said.

During the trial, Williams based his case along legal grounds, saying that
Dell had explicitly violated Paragraph 65c in the United Methodist Book of
Discipline which states: "Ceremonies that celebrate homosexual unions shall
not be conducted by our ministers and shall not be conducted in our
churches."      

Another pastor, the Rev. Jimmy Creech of Omaha, Neb., had been found not
guilty of such a violation the previous year after he argued that the
placement of the prohibition in the Social Principles made it advisory, not
mandatory.

But when asked later for a decision, the denomination's highest court, the
Judicial Council, declared that Paragraph 65c did have the effect of church
law and "governs the conduct of the ministerial office." The council's
August decision also said that violation of 65c "renders a pastor liable to
a charge of disobedience to the order and discipline of the United Methodist
Church under Paragraph 2624 of the Discipline."

Williams charged, and Dell agreed, that despite the ruling a month earlier,
the pastor had performed the Sept. 19 union ceremony between Keith Eccarius
and Karl Reinhardt at Broadway United Methodist Church. Along with
disregarding the authority of the United Methodist General Conference, the
denomination's highest legislative body, Dell ignored the decision of its
highest court, the church counsel said.

Williams also accused the pastor of failing the order of elders and pointed
to Paragraph 311 in the Discipline, which calls the order a "covenant
community within the church to mutually support, care for and hold
accountable its members for the sake of the life and mission of the church."

The Rev. Larry Pickens, an attorney and pastor of Maple Park United
Methodist Church in Chicago, led the defense, arguing that Dell's
ministerial duty to serve as a pastor to all people - including the 30
percent of his congregation that is gay and lesbian - was just as important
as church law.

"The church would have you believe that this is about the law and the letter
of the law," Pickens said in his opening statement. "This case, however, is
about the people, the faces, the personalities, the real life stories of
persons who have been affected by the ministry of Gregory Dell. This case is
not about a single act. This is a case that reflects a single ministry of
over 30 years."

Pickens noted that John Wesley himself broke a centuries-old law of the
Church of England when, out of need, he ordained elders himself. Later,
through the testimony of the Rev. Thomas Frank, an expert witness on church
polity, he poked at the church counsel's legal argument. While Frank agreed
that Paragraph 65c was legal and binding, he said his interpretation of the
Judicial Council ruling was that being liable for charges of disobedience
did not automatically constitute disobedience. "That requires the judgment
of a committee on investigations and a trial court," he added.

The prosecution called three witnesses in presenting its case: Bishop George
Bashore, president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops, Dell himself,
and Bishop C. Joseph Sprague of the Chicago Area. Williams made his case by
stressing the Judicial Council's ruling last August and by emphasizing "the
plain meaning of the Discipline."

Pickens called eight witnesses for the defense, including Eccarius,
Reinhardt and other members of Dell's church. They testified to Dell's
activism and ministry. 

Dr. Terry Vanden Hoek, a University of Chicago physician, described his
struggle as a gay man - a struggle that led him to attempt suicide -- and
how Dell's ministry drew him into the church. Asked about the impact of last
fall's same-sex union at Broadway, Vanden Hoek said: "I guess, for the first
time, I felt like a full human being in the United Methodist Church."

Just after 4 p.m. March 26, when the trial court declared Dell guilty of the
charge of disobedience by a vote of 10-3, the trial entered the penalty
phase. The panel also found Dell guilty by a vote of 13-0 on the
"specification" that he conducted the holy union between Eccarius and
Reinhardt last September - a point that Dell never disputed. 

During the penalty hearing, Dell made a statement to the trial court
suggesting a truce. 

"Penalize me with a reprimand," he said. "Enter a letter of censure in my
permanent record of ministerial service, but decide that our denomination
can and even must live with such `disobedience' until May of 2000, when we
meet in General Conference and see what we have wrought with those few
minutes of voting in 1996."

Dell said he would conduct no liturgical acts as a political witness during
that period. However, under cross-examination by Williams, Dell said he
would not promise to refrain from performing same-sex union ceremonies
during that period. He has conducted 33 such ceremonies in the past 18
years.

After the trial, Sprague said the verdict "sends a difficult signal to that
significant community in Chicago." He noted that many people don't
understand the issue of "contextual ministry," the need to serve the
community that surrounds the church - in this case, a community with a
significant gay population.

"People upset about this issue probably have never had the vantage point to
see a neighborhood and live in a neighborhood like the one in which
(Broadway church) is set," he said.
 
# # #

*Bloom is news director of United Methodist News Service's New York office.
Tanton is news editor at UMNS' Nashville, Tenn., office. 

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