In All Things Charity

In 1996 the General Conference of the United Methodist Church voted to maintain its position that although homosexual persons were of “sacred worth” the practice of homosexuality was “incompatible with Christian teaching.” During the final days of that Conference the Reverend Gregory Dell, who had for a number of years been working toward inclusiveness in the church, and the Reverend Susan Davis had an idea for what became In All Things Charity. Fifteen clergy from all across the country joined to sponsor a statement of conscience challenging the exclusionary and bigoted practices of the Methodist Church and affirmed that God’s vision of humanity embraced and celebrated its full diversity. Thousands of clergy and laity signed that statement. The purpose of In All Things Charity was to work toward positive change concerning the issues of inclusiveness and heterosexism at the 2000 General Conference, and the Broadway United Methodist Church of Chicago sponsored the organization as a national ministry. On September 19, 1998 Reverend Gregory Dell conducted a marriage service for two men from his congregation. The Methodist Church filed charges against him and conducted a trial in Chicago at the end of March 1999. On March 26, 1999 the jury voted 10-3 to find Dell guilty of disobedience to the order and discipline of the United Methodist Church. He was suspended from his duties as pastor of the Broadway UMC from July 3, 1999 to June 30, 2000. During his time of suspension Rev. Dell served as Director of In All Things Charity, and he worked diligently, speaking throughout the country in behalf of the organization and its mission to lobby the church to become more inclusive at the 2000 General Conference. The Conference was held in May 2000 in Cleveland, Ohio and despite their best efforts and those of like-minded groups such as AMAR, and the Reconciling Congregation Program, the majority of church members failed to agree to make the church more inclusive. Shortly after the conference ended the Steering Committee of In All Things Charity recommended that the organization become a dormant, rather than active, committee of Broadway UMC as of July 1, 2000. On June 30, 2000 both Dell’s suspension as pastor of the Broadway United Methodist Church and his service as Director of In All Things Charity ended. Although the results of the 2000 General Conference were not favorable, the Reconciling Congregation Program of the Methodist Church was given a renewed focus. In October 2000 this group became the Reconciling Ministries Network, with aims to bring the 35% of the Methodist who support full inclusion together. With this in mind, on April 1, 2001 Reverend Gregory Dell wrote a letter to all the supporters of In All Things Charity to notify them that IATC was ending and that all its remaining resources would be transferred to the Reconciling Ministries Network.

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