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by Linda Worthington
UMConnection Staff

It may have been a path she was taking most of her life, but only now realized. Jane Grays was consecrated as a Deaconess by The United Methodist Church during the closing plenary worship of the United Methodist Women’s Assembly in Louisville, Ky., April 27. Bishop Marcus Matthews commissioned her as a Deaconess to a lifetime of service as a lay person at the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference May 30.

By answering God’s call, Grays said, she made the journey to becoming a Deaconess, “to a commitment of cutting-edge ministry of love, justice and service.” She, like the Deaconess covenant community, is rooted in Scripture, informed by history, driven by mission, ecumenical in scope, and global in outreach.

Grays’ commissioning as a Deaconess caps a life of service and study. She took classes required by the Deaconess Movement from the New York Theological Seminary, but this was after years as a devoted United Methodist Woman, being certified a lay servant, serving in both district and conference positions and serving through the Women’s Division of the General Board of Global Ministries as Dean of the Upper Atlantic Regional School (of Christian Mission).

She is a retired banker and worked for the Prince Georges County School system for several years. She has just finished her term as conference chair of the Commission on the Status and Role of Women.

In 2013, deaconesses celebrated a 125-year-long history, dating back to 1888, when they provided hospitality and kindness to those living on the margins. Deaconesses welcomed immigrants arriving in the United States in the early 1900s and they stood in solidarity with those who fought for Civil Rights in the 1960s, said Becky Louter, a deaconess and the executive for the Deaconess and Home Missioner administrative office with the national United Methodist Women.

The male equivalent of Deaconess is Lay Missioner, laymen who, like the women, are dedicated to a lifetime of service in lay ministry. The Office of Lay Missioner was created in 2004.

Deaconesses and lay missioners are trained professionals approved through a process established by United Methodist Women and are consecrated, commissioned and appointed by a bishop. Today nearly 200 active service deaconesses and home missioners fill important roles in the mission and ministry of The United Methodist Church.

For her ministry as a deaconess, Gray serves with the women in the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women (MCI-W) in Jessup. She is also on the MCI-W and Kairos advisory boards.

Her road to ministry “inside” a prison began in 2010 with a UMW request to lead a class, then attending a breakout session at Mission U, led by the Rev. Brian Jackson, followed by his “Healing Ministries” session. “I really felt excited,” she said as she pursued the topic through Kairos Prison Ministry.

“When I first went inside with Kairos,” as part of a 38-women group paired with 35 women prisoners, “It felt like such a spiritual high.” After additional training from the institution, she became a weekly visitor. “I knew it was my ministry when I became uplifted as the doors clanged shut behind me.”

“Training as a deaconess has helped me understand theology and to answer God’s call to be obedient,” she said. Though she’d heard the call, she said she was “reluctant to respond because I’m a senior citizen.” She had a psychological review as part of the deaconess process. “I kept waiting for the psychologist to say I was too old.” It didn’t happen. “God is still calling me and I have to be obedient,” she said.

Grays is joined by two other deaconesses in the Conference. A long time conference deaconess, Shelly Owens recently returned to her home state of Oklahoma. But still in the conference are Gertrude Dailey of Metropolitan UMC in Annapolis and Carolyn Anderson, a program director at Emory UMC in Washington, D.C. Logan Alley from Foundry UMC is in training.

Grays was born and raised in New York and moved to Maryland in the 1970s. She is a widow with two children, three grandchildren and one great-grand child. “I didn’t think I’d be doing any of this … I’m humbled that God is still using me,” she said.

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For information on becoming a deaconess or home missioner, visit www.dhmumc.org.