The Church is wounded. Beverly Dale wants to heal it. The wounds show themselves in unhappy marriages, unwanted children, and unhealthy sexual behaviors. The healing will come from redefining love, teaching sex-positive ethics, and recovering erotic passion. Dale believes that the very survival of the earth is linked to our individual spiritual and erotic well being. Through stories, songs, and performance, Dale models guilt-free, faith-informed, sex-positive ways to heal ourselves and our communities.
Ordained as a clergy in the Disciples of Christ tradition, Dale has been a public theologian and outspoken presence on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania since 1989. She has been an advocate for creating a more compassionate and just world on such varied topics as worker rights, race relations, and civil rights for the sexual minority communities, and gender equity. Believing that “God always revises our boundaries outward,” Dale leads interfaith discussions and works to promote understanding across the boundaries of gender, race and sexual orientation.
Dale is also a teacher for change and, as such, has taken scores of students under her tutelage to help them consider how best to contribute their unique skills and interests to the service of humanity.
In addition, Dale is a performance artist who feels at home in front of an audience of any size. A vocalist in the church since she was a child, she now uses in public presentations drama, music, and poetry to draw an audience into her message that then becomes the universal language of the heart. This experience often confounds some who say, “I don’t know why I am moved.” But always she leaves her listeners thinking in new ways.
She received her Doctor of Ministry degree from the Chicago Theological Seminary in 1988 specializing in pastoral counseling. Her doctoral work focused on revitalizing small churches. Her undergraduate and masters degrees in sociology, specializing in sexuality and family, were awarded by Illinois State University. Dale was honored by the Center for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights in 1998 for her work on the Domestic Partnership Bill adopted by the City Council of Philadelphia. She has written for The Disciple, The Other Side, and the Journal for Women and Religion.
You can email Rev. Bev at revbev@pobox.upenn.edu