The Rev Greg Dell: The Beginnings of a Memoir

May 19, 2018

Produced and edited by Marilyn Bennett for Life Stories

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Marilyn Bennett

The Rev Greg Dell: The Beginnings of a Memoir video is a recording of interviews by Marilyn Bennett with Greg Dell in August 2011. The interviews took place in Greg and his wife Jade's apartment in the Logan Square Area of Chicago, after his diagnosis of Parkinson's in 2007 and after he left the pastorate at Broadway United Methodist Church in Chicago.

Greg wanted to express early influences in his life that helped craft his ministry and later as he lived with Parkinson's. He was a champion for civil rights for all people and lived that commitment in his ministry, daily interactions, leadership and activism. Parkinson's took Greg's life in October 2016. Greg was a founding member of The Church Within A Church Movement.

The Rev Greg Dell The Beginnings of a Memoir

Marilyn Bennett

Interviews with Greg Dell

The video was produced and edited by Marilyn Bennett for Life Stories, a video biography and memoir company working nationally to record oral histories and capture family members' lives in their own words. Having had cancer, one of Marilyn's foci is working with cancer patients who are terminally ill. For more information, go to marilynbennett.com

Thoughts by and about Greg

This [ministry] is what I love to do. But if it costs you your integrity to survive, it's not worth surviving.

Pastor Greg Dell
I can't do anything different.

My religion says that I'm to serve all people.

I can't serve some and not others.

Pastor Greg Dell
He was funny as all get out. His sense of humor and the twinkle in his eye. Everyone who knew Greg could tell you about that expression.

He had the ability to take meaningful things seriously and maintain a sense of humor and a lightness about himself personally.

Rev. Lois McCullen Parr, pastor Broadway UMC, Chicago, IL
He really had a heart for justice.

They were not just words for him. It was his way of life.

Everything was about justice and equity for him.

Rev. Vernice Thorn, retired pastor, member CWACM
I became convinced... that the gospel, that which was giving life to people, was really expressed in the civil-rights movement and its insistence on justice and fairness for all people regardless of their identity.

Injustice in any form was injustice in all of its forms.

Pastor Greg Dell
[Greg was] a beacon on love and inclusion.

Greg's sermons were awe-inspiring, blending scripture with current events and person[al] experience then bringing it home to the scripture.

Scott McGowan, attended Broadway UMC, Chicago, IL
His witness has made a difference both transforming one person and in the larger story of the movement for inclusion.

Rev. Lois McCullen Parr, pastor Broadway UMC, Chicago, IL
In every fiber of his being, Greg really believed in the love of God having the kind of power that can overcome earthly power.

Rev. Lois McCullen Parr, pastor Broadway UMC, Chicago, IL
He taught me how to create my own identity and my own voice and he gave me space to do that. He would step back and push me forward.

Rev. Vernice Thorn, retired pastor, member CWACM
Don't violate the character and nature that God gave you. It is something to be treasured, loved and expressed.

Pastor Greg Dell
I loved hearing his voice and there was a physical joy about him when he preached.

Jim Bennett, Lambda Legal Midwest Regional Director; member Broadway UMC, Chicago, IL
Greg in his ministry believed and believes that the church 'rite' of marriage ought be provided 'for all,' despite the fact in the United Methodist Church today, it is only 'afforded to some.'

Rev. Gil Caldwell
Putting faith to action is a huge piece of what he [Greg] gave the church.

Jacqueline Boyd, director of music, Broadway United Methodist Church, Chicago, IL
Greg said many times at Euclid that part of a deep faith is an ability to be angry about situations involving pain and loss, but that [those situations] never have the last word. This disease will not destroy him. It isn't the last word.

Carl Rinder, member of Euclid Methodist Church, Oak Park, IL
Everyone knows what a soft spot Greg has in his heart for the babies and little ones. I think baptisms were always one of his favorite “duties.”

He beamed with joy and delight as he held our daughter aloft in a jubilant procession around the sanctuary, proclaiming, “Welcome your new sister, sisters and brothers” as everyone clapped and cheered.

Katy Clusen, member of Broadway Methodist Church, Chicago, IL
On my last visit with Greg... I told him how his consistent message of God's love for LGBTQI persons has saved lives, and that the risks he took to challenge UM polity on our behalf will continue to energize CWACM.

We've all been changed for knowing you, Greg. Rest, now. You've taught us well. We'll take it from here.

cathy knight, executive director, Church Within A Church Movement
This is how God made us, all different, so beautiful, a garden of humanity, and we should be able to come together and be who we are.

Pastor Gregory Dell