THE VENERABLE H. H. J. GRAY The following sermon was delivered by the Right Revd. Noel V. Willoughby at the Funeral Service for Hugh Gray on Tuesday 4th November in Mountrath Church. We print it in full as a tribute to the late Hugh Gray.

“In the early hours of Sunday morning last, Archdeacon Hugh Gray passed peacefully away. It was All Soul’s Day – the day when the church remembers all her faithful. ‘Faithful’ is a much-used word – even overused – in reference to church members. But as defined by the Oxford dictionary it denotes one, who is loyal, constant, true, dependable, staunch, and for good measure two from the Chamber’s Pocket Thesaurus, unswerving, unwavering. Isn’t’ this how Hugh Henry James Gray will be remembered by the people of the parishes where he serves. All his ministry was in the old United Diocese of Ossory Ferns & Leighlin, with a stint in each, beginning with his ordination in l949 for the Curacy of Enniscorthy. Two years later his first incumbency in the Fenagh Group of Parishes – somewhat unusual at the time with so quick an appointment as rector. Then his final move here to Mountrath in l960, where he was to serve out the remainder of his ministry – 36 years in all.

Ministry was his life, his life was ministry. In the course of those 48 years, in ministry, he touched the life of the Diocese, and wider church at many points, with his membership of committees, councils and synods. In fact the only blemish I can find in his otherwise outstanding record of service, is that he actually liked committees, and was diligent in his attendance of them! His role as Archdeacon, to which I had the privilege of appointing him in l983, added greatly to his work, deputising for his bishop, as he did, on many occasions – which is the primary function of the office, to be the eyes and ears of the bishop in the diocese. I must confess though I’ve heard archdeacons described in other ways!! Seen by some as the bishop’s gun-slinger, and as the one who tells his bishop what to do, and where an archdeacon has been inherited from a previous bishop, “as the cross which hangs around the bishop’s neck.” Hugh was none of these. I was blessed in having him alongside me as Archdeacon for almost ten years – doing all that an archdeacon should do, and at times being for me, what St. Paul looked for in church leaders – “A strong arm of protection”.

Beyond the Diocese he was very involved in the life of the community – be it in prison administration, hospital boards, educational bodies. A sought after and much respected figure. Inevitably, because of their close working relationship a bond of friendship grows between an archdeacon and his bishop. For Hugh and myself it was the renewal and development of a friendship which had begun back in the mid-forties as theological students in Trinity College, Dublin. The front square was a favourite place of meeting, which sometimes spilled over into Davy Byrnes! On the far too infrequent occasions when we’d meet in recent years, we’d do what most retireds so, indulge in a bit of “when I” and “how I” and “what I”, as he looked back on the past, reflecting on all its changes, and particularly in the life of the church, and how difference things were now, to when we were ordained more than 50 years ago. At our last meeting I remember asking him, with all that is happening and still happening in the church and its ministry, would he still do things the same way. His answer was an immediate and definite ‘Yes, of course I would’. Adding, ‘even if the ministry into which I was ordained no longer exists, or is seen as old hat, its still how I’d do it. That’s how I was prepared. That’s how I was trained” ………..a product of the Oulton/Hartford Theological School of the 40’s, and of the Frank Empey curacy training. And none the worse for that! Not for Hugh the fads and fashions of religion, with its passing whims, and doctrines fashioned to the varying hour. Nor for him the pursuit of the Theological pendulum in its swing to the latest trend and favour of the day. Instead what mattered were the basic tenets of the faith. The non-negotiables – the absolutes of the Gospel.

And then in the exercise of ministry, the dignity which befitted the office and work of a priest, in the orderly and dignified celebration of worship, and the care of the people in one’s charge, with the flog of knocking on doors. He still believed in house visiting and practised it! The ministry of word and sacrament; the care of God’s people were for him ‘universals’, which held true for ministry in every age. Traditionalist though this makes him appear, yet he was far from a dyed-in-the-wool conservative. Never a traditionalist trapped in the past for whom everything had to be, “as it was, is now and shall be for every”. He saw the necessity for change and could welcome it. He accepted and used new liturgies; he favoured the ordination of women, and was on hand to greet the first woman priest in the Diocese; he agreed with the synodical decision to allow the re-marriage of divorced persons in church, under certain circumstances. Never slow to implement new initiatives and fresh ideas, so that almost to the very end, like the Prophet of Old, he remained “very zealous for the Lord of Hosts”. The presence here of so many clergy and laity from other traditions, is a reminder that ecumenism is determined less by doctrine and belief, important as they are, than by how as Christians we relate to each other and treat each other. It is out of relationships that trust is built, respect established and acceptance comes.

This is the first and most basic step in any meaningful ecumenism. In his outreach to other Christian traditions, Hugh Gray did more for ecumenism than many of the more formal and official church contacts. No tribute to the Archdeacon would be complete without the mention of his late wife Isabelle, who was with him for the major portion of his ministry. What a sad loss her death was to him, his family and parish. A loss from which he never fully recovered. She was always there to support, encourage, at times restrain, even rebuke. But always there. With the death of Hugh the family have now lost both parents, and to them, Philip, Ian, Nigel, Raymond and Linda, and the wider family circle, we reach out in our love and sympathy.

Seven years ago, almost to the very day, All Saints Day l996, at his Retirement Service, I said of Hugh “It would be hard to imagine him being anything other than a pries in the Church of God, or doing anything other than the work of a priest, and in any other tradition than the Church of Ireland”, “and what though now he standeth at no early alter, yet in white raiment on the golden floor where love is perfect and no step can falter, he serveth as a priest for evermore”. So the poet wrote. Whatever about work, we believe life goes on. Death is not the end. This is our faith, in this our hope, in this our comfort.