Gray ended his sermon by telling the story of Robert E. Lee in his parish church after the Civil War: When, during a celebration of the Eucharist, a black man made his way to the altar rail, the congregation hung back and left the man at the rail alone. Lee rose, walked to the rail, […]

Gray had already talked with a Cleveland print shop about reprinting the statement as a six-by-three-and-a-half inch pamphlet and had gotten price estimates. When he returned to the printer with “The Church Considers the Supreme Court Decision,” however, the owner of the shop very nearly changed his mind. “He was furious,” Gray recalls. “He said […]

In addition to Gray’s regular Sunday services in Rosedale, on Thursdays he would drive the twenty-some miles there to visit with his parishioners. Looking back, he remembers fondly as “fun” going to see “little old ladies at three o’clock in the afternoon.” Other parts of the day he might spend wandering around Rosedale’s small business […]