c. 1999 Religion News Service

CHICAGO _ The church trial of the Rev. Gregory Dell, set to begin next week in a suburb near here, won’t be the trial of the century. But it will be the trial of his life and his 30 years in the ministry as 13 of his pastoral colleagues determine whether he is fit to continue in the ministry of the nation’s second largest Protestant denomination.

Dell, the pastor of Broadway United Methodist Church, has presided at marriage-like”holy unions”of same-sex partners in apparently clear violation of United Methodist Church law _ the second such pastor to stand trial but the first since the denomination’s Judicial Council ruled that the ban on same-sex celebrations has the force of church law.

The trial is set to begin March 25 with closed-door jury selection of 13 jurors from a pool of 54 pastors from the denomination’s Northern Illinois Conference. It will be held at First United Methodist Church in Downers Grove, Ill.

Retired Bishop Jack Tuell from Des Moines, Wash., once a practicing attorney and a veteran in this presiding capacity of several church trials, will preside.

Dell is formally charged with disobeying”the order and discipline”of the United Methodist Church _ one of 10 offenses a pastor can be tried on _ for performing a same-sex union ceremony for two men Sept. 19, 1998.

A reluctant Bishop C. Joseph Sprague filed a formal complaint against Dell, averring as he did his”high regard (for Dell) as a person of integrity”and as an”exceptional pastor.” Sprague also noted his own”theological and pastoral disagreement”with the”component of church law”banning denominational ministers from presiding at same-sex unions _ an issue that has sharply divided the 8.4 million-member church and brought it, in the eyes of some, to the point of schism.

Church counsel, or prosecutor, the Rev. Stephen C. Williams, pastor of First United Methodist Church of Franklin Park, Ill., has said it”couldn’t be clearer”that Dell”violated his ministerial vow”to uphold church teachings.

For Dell, however, the issue centers on his ministry to his people and including them in church matters without discrimination against gays; he says he welcomes the chance the trial gives him to take discussion of sexual orientation from”the abstract”to consideration of”real people and real ministry.” Williams acknowledged that Dell is popular and respected and has done much good, but said there must be consequences for breaking a church covenant.

Dell’s trial will be the second of a United Methodist pastor since the church’s General Conference _ its highest decision-making body _ adopted the ban on pastors performing same-sex marriages. A complaint has been filed against a third pastor, the Rev. David Holmes, Council Bluffs, Iowa, for his role in a mass”holy union”service that took place in Sacramento, Calif. in January.

In the first trial, the Rev. Jimmy Creech, then of Omaha, Neb., was narrowly acquitted in March 1998 of breaking church law by performing a same-sex union for two lesbians, in part on grounds that the ban was part of the church’s Social Principles _ basically guidelines _ and not the Discipline, or lawbook of the church.

In August, however, the Judicial Council, the church’s highest court, ruled that performing a same-sex union was a chargeable offense.

Dell said he is committed to performing such services”as long as (he has his) ordination,”noting he has performed 33 of them over the last 18 years.

In his present congregation, which is about a third gay, it would be unfairly discriminatory to refuse them, Dell said.

DEA END BOWMAN