Gray Memorial United Methodist Church

05/31/2026

Because Christ is Alive, we Belong to God

05/24/2026

Pentecost Sunday
Because Christ is Alive, We are Ready to Be Moved
Rev. Beth Demme, Pastor

05/19/2026

Gray Memorial UMC Weekly News -

Church Council will host a casual dinner of pizza, salad, and refreshments this Wednesday, May 20, at 6:00 p.m. to welcome Pastor Margaret during her visit to Tallahassee, and you are invited!

05/17/2026

Ascension Sunday Worship
Rev. Beth Demme

05/16/2026

We will celebrate The Ascension this Sunday.

On this Ascension Day, I am struck all over again by how, in Luke’s account of the Ascension, he tells us that as Jesus is leaving the disciples—and the earthly life (and death, and life) he has known with them—he blesses them. With this last gesture, this final word, Jesus acknowledges that blessing and leaving are deeply bound together, and that love somehow endures within every aching distance that happens in this life.

This is a wondrous and difficult grace.

Jesus is not trying to sugarcoat his leaving. He is not giving his beloved disciples a blessing as a consolation prize for having come through these wild years with him, only to see him go. Instead, with this blessing, Jesus shows that the substance of grief is also the substance of love. They are made of the same stuff. If we can stay with both the grief and the love, the love will become more clear, and more clarifying. In time, it will show us the way to go.

BLESSING THE DISTANCE

It is a mystery to me
how as the distance
between us grows,
the larger this blessing
becomes,

as if the shape of it
depends on absence,
as if it finds its form
not by what
it can cling to
but by the space
that arcs
between us.

As this blessing
makes its way,
first it will cease
to measure itself
by time.

Then it will release
how attached it has become
to this place
where we have lived,
where we have learned
to know one another
in proximity and
presence.

Next this blessing
will abandon
the patterns
in which it moved,
the habits that helped it
recognize itself,
the familiar pathways
it traced.

Finally this blessing
will touch its fingers
to your brow,
your eyes,
your mouth;
it will hold
your beloved face
in both its hands,

and then
it will let you go;
it will loose you
into your life;
it will leave
each hindering thing

until all that breathes
between us
is blessing
and all that beats
between us
is grace.

—Jan Richardson
from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons
janrichardson.com/books

Image: "Ascension II"
© Jan Richardson
janrichardsonimages.com

(Blessing & image inspired by Luke 24:44-53.)

05/12/2026

Gray Memorial UMC Weekly News -

Ladies of Gray Memorial, please join us on the 2nd Tuesday of each month to share in sisterhood, love, and faith.Our next meeting is:

05/10/2026

Because Christ is Alive, Our Life is a Response
Rev. Beth Demme

05/05/2026

Gray Memorial UMC Weekly News -

Thank you to everyone who came to The Big Give and made it both a success and a joy. Together, we raised over $1,600 and shared God’s love by being a blessing in our community.

05/02/2026

EXTENDED! We will be open on Sunday, 5/3 from 12-3!