GREENSBORO — A celebration of the life of Ethne Joan Bertram Gray will be held on Sunday, July 28, at 2 p.m., at the Greensboro United Church of Christ in Greensboro. Refreshments and sharing to follow in Fellowship Hall. Live-stream of the event will be at youtube.com/live/F42Orvg-KhY.
Ethne was born in Boksburg, South Africa. She developed her active imagination, adventurous spirit, and deep spirituality by playing in the bushveldt around her childhood home. Her free-spirited mother Grace Bertram nurtured this quality in Ethne. Ethne eventually became interested in drama and acted in Shakespearean plays in Johannesburg. She also studied yoga at this time, setting her on a path to becoming an avid student of world religions and cultures. She was active in the anti-Apartheid movement and helped to found an interracial YWCA in Johannesburg, along with Winnie Mandela and other social activists.
In 1953 she met her husband-to-be, Clive Gray, a student at the University of Chicago, in a World Council of Churches interracial work camp in Roodepoort, South Africa. In 1959 she obtained a degree in social work at the London School of Economics. After marrying in London in 1959, Ethne and Clive moved to Cambridge, Mass., where Clive studied for a Ph.D. in economics. On assignment with the Harvard Institute for International Development, the family lived in Nigeria, Kenya, Colombia, Ethiopia, and finally Jakarta, Indonesia. Ethne helped local women in each country become income-earning through handicrafts and enjoyed immersing herself in diverse international cultures.
After the family returned to the U.S. in 1976, Ethne studied Art Therapy at Goddard College and began training as a Jungian Analyst at the Boston Jung Institute. She taught courses in art therapy at the Jung Institute, Lesley College, and University of New Mexico. Ethne also completed a Master of Divinity in Theology at Andover Newton Theological School and had a private therapy practice in Newton and Cambridge, Mass. She supported her clients’ individuation process using a combination of expressive art, dream-symbol work, and individual spiritual guidance. Ethne formed deep relationships with clients, colleagues, and friends with whom she long remained in touch.
Ethne was creative, spirited, funny, generous, and made people feel cared for. She is missed and held close by many, far and wide.
