Articles
Articles about Greg's ministry and the people it touched.
See also Media Coverage of the Charges Against Greg, the Trial, and the Appeal for articles about the events of 1998-2000.
Divine Diversity
On Sunday mornings the Schattauer family drives from their home in Oak Park to 3344 Broadway on Chicago's North Side to worship at Broadway United Methodist Church.
They make the trip, in large part, because of the pastor - Greg Dell. "Greg's made a big difference in my faith," said Paul Schattauer.
Pastor Faces Test of Faith
The voice of Rev. Gregory Dell has inflamed emotions from inspiration to outrage in his relentless push for gay rights in the church. At his congregation, Broadway United Methodist, his words became his witness, whether he was delivering a spirited Sunday sermon on inequities at Wal-Mart or quietly counseling a church member in his office.
But, like a cruel joke, the pastor's passionate voice now occasionally stutters and sometimes fails him completely.
Profile: Rev. Gregory Dell
The Rev. Gregory Dell became pastor of Broadway United Methodist Church in Chicago in 1995. At the time, approximately 40% of the congregation's members were gay or lesbian. Since the 1980s, he had included holy union services for gay and lesbian couples as part of his pastoral duties because he believed a person’s God-given identity should be celebrated rather than a reason for exclusion.
The Rev. Greg Dell
I saw you
surrounded by police
your face drawn by the sorrow
of a thousand gay lives
shattered in the conspiracy
that kills in the end.
Cool Under the Collar
It has taken the United Methodist Church four months to assemble its case against Rev. Gregory Dell, though it is hard to imagine what took so long.
Consider the case file.
A Man of God, and Compassionate Friend of Man
Greg Dell stuck a key in the lock and the bolt clicked back.
"The scene of the crime," he said.
The wooden door swung open and there it was, not much different from the way it looked on the day the crime occurred. Sunlight filtered through stained glass, dust motes wafting above the altar and the wooden pews.
It was in this sanctuary of Chicago's Broadway United Methodist Church on a day last September that Dell committed the act.