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Church-goer Irene
Gray Is Dedicated to Dedham
Organist Irene Gray
often gets a helping hand from her husband, Foster Gray, at the
Dedham Congregational Church. They have been involved with the
church for more than 60 and 70 years, respectively.
COURTESY OF IRENE GRAY |
Visible from a
distance, at the corner of Upper Dedham Road and Route 46, the
wooden, white Dedham Congregational Church sits in an imposing
manner on one of Dedham’s many hills.
The 161-year-old
church is no longer the biggest building on the Bald Mountain side
of Dedham, not since the four-bay firehouse up the road was built in
1999. But it has survived since its organization in 1841, and still
looms as the largest part of many people’s lives here.
Moreover, it serves
far more than the church’s 58 members.
One of them, Irene
Gray, has had a significant role in the last 60 years of the church,
starting with Sunday school as a child. Her husband, Foster Gray, 10
years older, can claim more than 70 years’ involvement with the
church.
“The church has had
its ups and downs, but there are always dedicated people who keep it
going,” Irene Gray said.
She is an example
of the kind of person who keeps the church alive.
She has played the
organ every Sunday for more than 30 years. She’s not sure exactly
how long, but she knows she got a five-year break in there, about 15
years ago, when someone else took over the music duties.
“Every time a new
person comes to the church, I always ask if they play the organ,”
Irene said.
It’s not that she
doesn’t enjoy the role of church organist, because Foster Gray—who
knows even more hymns than she does—helps out now and again. It’s
just that the job entails getting there about an hour ahead of
everyone, making sure the church is ready for the service. And after
30-plus years of everyone counting on her every Sunday, it may be
time for someone else to be the organist.
Only recently did
she just take her first Sunday off in years. The Grays’ grandchild
was being baptized in Bangor on a Sunday, and the family event, for
once, took precedence.
“I am there every
Sunday, unless I am sick, of course,” she said. “Sometimes I like to
tell the minister that I am more important that he is.”
She might be, in
her way, for all that she does. Pitching in and helping out is just
Irene Gray’s nature. She doesn’t let a phone call pass if someone in
Dedham is in need. She and Blake Thibodeau are in charge of the food
cupboard that operates out of the church.
She also is one of
the big organizers of the church’s bean suppers, monthly between
April and September.
Helping others was
Gray’s professional orientation for years. When she retired in
December 1998 from her position in Bangor as the fundraising
coordinator for the five counties served by United Way of Eastern
Maine, she had the distinction of having worked for United Way for
50 years.
Because that was
more than any other United Way worker in the country, she received
letters of commendation from President Bill Clinton and Governor
Angus King.
Four years of
retirement means that Irene Gray just has more time these days to
give to the community where she was born and grew up.
“United Way is
about people helping people, and that’s why I have kept right on
doing that myself,” she said.
“People helping
people. There’s something about it that makes you feel really good.”
The church figures
foremost for the Grays. They were married there, and their two sons,
Wayne and Stephen, were baptized there.
“We will be buried
there, too,” she said.
She realizes that
the older generation is the heart of the church these days.
“The hardest part
is to draw in the young people. They just don’t seem to have the
same dedication to others that we learned from our parents. Helping
others was just bred into us.
“As long as our
generation is going,” Irene Gray said, “that church will never
close.” |
