There is a sign that has adorned the entrance to Camp Bratton-Green and Gray Center for more years than most can remember. But there is one person who knows not only how long it’s been there but who made it and when. Charley Belote, son of Oliver Belote (who made this sign), serves today in pretty much the same way his father did long... before the conference center was even a dream. Charley and his family live, today, in the same house he grew up in! Few of us can even imagine having such an opportunity.

How Would It Feel to Go Home Again?

If you could go back and do it all over again, how would it be? What would it be that you’d most want to experience again? The look and smell of the house? The shade of the big oak out back? The tire-swing hanging from its huge branches? What would any of it be like by yourself? And that’s what we want you to think about this year on Gray Center Sunday.

For most of us the gathering of old friends and sharing of our common interests is really what the memories are all about. Our ‘home place’ at Gray Center is beautiful and it is truly Holy Space, but it is nothing if it is not a place for US. The peace, the quiet, the fauna and the flora – it all makes Gray Center a “little piece of heaven,” but it is the gathering of those close to us in this Holy Place that we remember far longer.

We ask you for your prayers and your support, in dollars – always – and in so many other ways we offer each year, work weekends, the Bishops BBQ, and sending your youngsters to our camps each summer.

Help us celebrate our gift in Gray Center on this Gray Center Sunday – May 4th, 2008.