Deacon Forrest Gray retires from diocesan diaconate training program

Friday, Apr. 03, 2015

SALT LAKE CITY — Deacon Forrest Gray has retired as the director of ongoing training for the permanent diaconate for the Diocese of Salt Lake City; a position he held from 2007 until the first of this year. Deacon Gray was ordained in 2004. 

This is a retirement “of sorts,” said the Most Rev. John C. Wester, Bishop of Salt Lake City, at a diocesan staff retirement luncheon held in Deacon Gray’s honor. “This is a new chapter in your life; now you will have more time for all your many interests and hobbies,” he said. “This is an opportunity for us to thank you for all you have done for us and will continue to do for us, and we pray that you will have many happy, good and healthy years ahead.” 

Quoting a saying from Saint Francis de Sales, Bishop Wester said Deacon Gray is “strong in his faith, strong in his love of people, strong in his ability to reach out to people and care for others and he has a real gentleness and kindness. That is a wonderful role model for all of us and it has been a grace to work and minister with you.”  

In his remarks, Bishop Wester acknowledged the deacon, his wife and their son as “a gift that keeps on giving:” Maria Cruz Gray is the diocesan director of Hispanic Ministries; Father Christopher Gray is parochial vicar of Saints Peter and Paul Parish.

“My dad taught me everything I know about duty. For a priest, this is one of the most important habits – right behind loving God,” Fr. Gray said. 

Several deacons from the Class of 2004 attended the luncheon.

Over the years, “what I have appreciated the most about you, Forrest, is not only your friendship, but your being a tremendous gentleman, always willing to help by assistance and guidance; your encouragement of additional education has been phenomenal,” said Deacon Hershel Hester, from Saint James the Just Parish in Ogden. “It has always been a joy to call you and put forth an idea and have you respond to it and lead me in the direction that I ought to be going. I am going to miss your leadership and all that you have done for the deacons.”

Deacon Jack Clark from Saint Mary Parish agreed, adding that it was not an easy task for Deacon Gray to direct the many deacons, but he conducted his diaconal ministry, diocesan assignment and daily life “with dignity, grace, kindness and compassion,” he said. “We thank God for you.”  

The years have gone by and “Forrest has worked hard,” added Deacon George Reade, Chancellor of the Diocese of Salt Lake City. “He has put together a lot of conferences, he did a lot of traveling and preaching in southern Utah, and coordinating deacons in the same direction was not an easy feat.” 

In his remarks, Deacon Gray thanked Chancellor emeritus Deacon Silvio Mayo for helping him when he was asked to take the job after Benedictine Sister Jeremia Januschka passed away unexpectedly. 

“I literally didn’t know what I was getting into, and I am so happy he asked me to take the job,” Deacon Gray said. “None of this was my idea, it just happened to me.”

However, he had his predecessor’s blessing, he recalled in an interview. Once while driving with his wife and Sr. Jeremia, “Sr. Jeremia said, ‘Forrest, you are going to replace me,’ and I had only been a deacon for a couple of years,” he recalled. “I thought, ‘How could I replace somebody like her?’ She was very formidable, and I wasn’t.”

This is Deacon Gray’s third retirement: He served 30 years in the Air Force and 15 years with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; the family transferred to Utah from California in 1986 so he could work for the National Weather Service Western Region headquarters in Salt Lake City.

He entered the diaconate formation class after being invited by Notre Dame Sister Maria Molina, he said. “I have to thank her; she asked me to be a deacon about three times and the third class I finally accepted.”