BIO FOR METHODISTS

Larry & Ellie

California

1987

Robert Lawrence Clayton's heart took its last beat and he drew his last breath on December 23, 2016. He died in Ocala, Florida after a fall which broke his leg. He had been in the ICU and at Hospice of Marion County for three weeks when he made the final step out of this world into the Great Beyond. His ninety year old heart was not strong enough to sustain him through a slow and arduous recovery. When he was completely ready to go, he left gently and (using some words from William Blake) entered the "immense world of delight" closed to our "senses five".

He was born March 7, 1926, the son of Robert Lawrence Clayton, Sr, a Methodist minister in the Louisiana Conference for 36 years, and Mary Maude Leech Clayton of Memphis, Tennessee. He was raised in parsonages of the numerous small Methodist Churches scattered throughout the state of Louisiana. His love of learning was conveyed to him primarily through his mother who gave him piano and French lessons before he started school. Of his father he said, "Daddy's preaching was very compelling. I was 9, and one day when my Sunday Teacher and her husband went down to the alter to join the church, I joined them. I was received on profession of faith just like anyone else would have been. Not a lot was made of it at home."

In January 1943, when sixteen years old, he enrolled in Duke University on a scholarship provided for the children of Methodist ministers. When he neared 18 years of age and would soon become eligible for the draft, he withdrew from Duke to become qualified as a radio operator as an alternative to being drafted into the army. By serving the United States as a Radio Officer on merchant ships during World War II, he had the opportunity to expand his horizons through traveling the world. Following the war he re-enrolled in Duke and was graduated in 1949 with a BA and a Phi Beta Kappa key.

In 1951, during the Korean Conflict, being once again eligible for the draft, he enlisted in the Navy and served until 1953. In 1956, while working as a research chemist in New Orleans, he realized that his life was empty without God. As soon as he began seeking God he found that God was seeking him. He responded to God's love by offering himself in service to Him. He later stated that what happened to him at the age of 30 "was without question the most important event of my life." Following that awakening he lived and served God out of gratitude for that experience.

He enrolled in the New Orleans Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in March 1957 and sought trial membership with the New Orleans District of the Methodist Church. He was admitted on probationary status in 1958, and completed his Bachelor of Divinity in 1960. His ordination as a Deacon was in 1959 and as an Elder in 1960. He married Eleanor May Babylon in the Algiers United Methodist Church on December 21, 1957.

In the Louisiana Conference he served St. James UMC (1958-59), Angie UMC (1959-61) and Varnado UMC (1959-61). After he became enamored with the mountains of North Carolina he sought a transfer to the Western North Carolina Conference. District Superintendent Rev. Garland Stafford arranged his appointment to the Millers Creek Charge (1961-66) which included Millers Creek UMC , Union UMC , Arbor Grove UMC and Charity UMC. During his tenure the charge was split into two: Millers Creek and Charity as one charge and Union and Arbor Grove as the other.

While he was living and working in Millers Creek, the Lord opened to him a ministry to alcoholics. In 1966 he was appointed to the position of NC State Probation Officer for Alcoholics where he was employed for eleven years while living in Winston Salem, N.C. He found alcoholics particularly responsive to the ministry of compassionate concern which he could offer them as they pursued recovery. But he relentlessly desired opportunities to grow and learn and so followed a leading to participate in the Church of the Savior in Washington, D.C., a model church which urged its members to follow an inward and outward journey. A rich period of serving and developing followed as the family moved to the Washington metropolitan area in 1976. The Western North Carolina Conference appointed him to his ministries to alcoholics and to his ministries through the Church of the Savior. He located in 1978 and retired in 1979.

The resources available in Washington gave him greater opportunity to pursue his intellectual interests. He became fascinated by the poet William Blake whose spiritual teachings were to influence his thinking and living through the rest of his life. In the early eighties he wrote an unpublished book which he named Ram Horn'd with Gold, a commentary on the spiritual life and work of William Blake. As computer resources became more available he continued to improve his book with pictures and links and by publishing electronically. To encourage others to study Blake he began a blog in 2004 and named it William Blake: Religion and Psychology. There are more than 2000 posts to the blog which show Blake's images, follow his development, and present exerts from his poetry. An important feature of the blog is relating Blake's poetry to Biblical quotations.

Two other ministries he continued to engage in during his retirement years were leading Bible Study and visiting the sick. [He liked to lead Bible Study in small groups using student centered methods. He would get together a few people from diverse backgrounds and encourage them to freely react to the Prophets and the Gospel. The movement of the Spirit in such circumstances could be relied upon.]

Following his own open heart surgery in 2000 his ministry included volunteering weekly at Munroe Regional Medical Center to visit and pray with heart patients. He never flagged in his efforts to teach spiritual truth and to encourage and support those who were weak or suffering.

He is survived by Eleanor Babylon Clayton, his wife of fifty-nine years, who was born in New Orleans, La. on March 16, 1937, and his three sons: Paul Martin Clayton, an accountant, who was born in New Orleans, La. on October 9, 1958; Mark John Clayton, a college professor, who was born in New Orleans, La. on September 13, 1960; and Robert Edwin Clayton, a psychotherapist, who was born on May 31, 1965 in North Wilkesboro, N.C. His memorial service was conducted in Florida on January 1, 2017 in the manner of Quakers at the Gainesville Friends Meetinghouse. His ashes will be scattered in places he loved both in the mountains and near the oceans.

With the Biblical Job he could say, "The spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life."

.

LOOKING BACK

Larry's Journal 

Tues Dec 27, 1984

"Thanks for everything.

Reflections about computing. I have transferred much of my idealism to it. I see it as an instrument for democratization.  At least it invites a meritocracy. I would like to make it available to all possible. I see it as a possible escape from various forms of poverty, providing new opportunities for many people in many ways. Praise the Lord. 

In Night 9 of 4Z Blake put on the mantle of John and allowed himself the luxury of letting his imagination soar with the visions of the apocalyptic future. All Mystery's tyrants are drown'd in a torrent of black blood. The symbol suggests the essential meaninglessness of their endeavors."
 
Ellie
May 2017 

In 1984 Larry was still intoxicated with his Blake studies but he had transferred much of his interest to the developing field of personal computing for exhilarating  stimulation.

Having learned from William Blake and John of Patmos that the two dimensions of apocalypse are the death of the diseased body of the old dispensation and the birth of the glorious freshly minted coin of the New Jerusalem, his hope was that mankind would be able to use the new gift of expanded mental capabilities embodied in computers to overcome his blindness and to open his doors of perception. 

Vision of Last Judgment, (E 565)
 "The Last Judgment is an Overwhelming of Bad Art & Science. 
Mental Things are alone Real what is Calld Corporeal Nobody Knows
of its Dwelling Place it is in Fallacy & its Existence an
Imposture  Where is the Existence Out of Mind or Thought Where is
it but in the Mind of a Fool.  Some People flatter themselves
that there will be No Last Judgment & that Bad Art will be
adopted & mixed with Good Art That Error or Experiment will make
a Part of Truth & they Boast that it is its Foundation these
People flatter themselves   I will not Flatter them Error is
Created Truth is Eternal Error or Creation will be Burned Up &
then & not till then Truth or Eternity will appear It is Burnt up
the Moment Men cease to behold it I assert for My self that I do
not behold the Outward Creation & that to me it is hindrance &
not Action it is as the Dirt upon my feet No part of Me. What it
will be Questiond When the Sun rises  do  you  not  see  a  round 
Disk of fire somewhat like a Guinea O no no I see an Innumerable
company of the Heavenly host crying Holy Holy Holy is the Lord
God Almighty"  

Four Zoas, Night VI, Page 69, (E 346)
"art thou Urizen
Art thou like me risen again from death or art thou deathless
If thou art he my desperate purpose hear & give me death
For death to me is better far than life. death my desire
That I in vain in various paths have sought but still I live     
The Body of Man is given to me I seek in vain to destroy
For still it surges forth in fish & monsters of the deeps
And in these monstrous forms I Live in an Eternal woe
And thou O Urizen art falln never to be deliverd
Withhold thy light from me for ever & I will withhold            
From thee thy food so shall we cease to be & all our sorrows
End & the Eternal Man no more renew beneath our power  
If thou refusest in eternal flight thy beams in vain
Shall pursue Tharmas & in vain shalt crave for food I will
Pour down my flight thro dark immensity Eternal falling         
Thou shalt pursue me but in vain till starvd upon the void
Thou hangst a dried skin shrunk up weak wailing in the wind

So Tharmas spoke but Urizen replied not. On his way
He took. high bounding over hills & desarts floods & horrible chasms
Infinite was his labour without end his travel   he strove       
In vain for hideous monsters of the deeps annoyd him sore
Scaled & finnd with iron & brass they devourd the path before him
Incessant was the conflict. On he bent his weary steps
Making a path toward the dark world of Urthona. he rose
With pain upon the dreary mountains & with pain descended   
And saw their grizly fears & his eyes sickend at the sight
The howlings gnashings groanings shriekings shudderings sobbings burstings
Mingle together to create a world for Los. In cruel delight"

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 121, (E 391)
"And the Eternal Man Said Hear my words O Prince of Light   
PAGE 122 
Behold Jerusalem in whose bosom the Lamb of God
Is seen tho slain before her Gates he self renewd remains
Eternal & I thro him awake to life from deaths dark vale
The times revolve the time is coming when all these delights
Shall be renewd & all these Elements that now consume            
Shall reflourish. Then bright Ahania shall awake from death
A glorious Vision to thine Eyes a Self renewing Vision  
The spring. the summer to be thine then Sleep the wintry days
In silken garments spun by her own hands against her funeral
The winter thou shalt plow & lay thy stores into thy barns       
Expecting to recieve Ahania in the spring with joy
Immortal thou. Regenerate She & all the lovely Sex
From her shall learn obedience & prepare for a wintry grave
That spring may see them rise in tenfold joy & sweet delight
Thus shall the male & female live the life of Eternity           
Because the Lamb of God Creates himself a bride & wife
That we his Children evermore may live in Jerusalem
Which now descendeth out of heaven a City yet a Woman
Mother of myriads redeemd & born in her spiritual palaces
By a New Spiritual birth Regenerated from Death" 

Revelation 21
[1] And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
[2] And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
[3] And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
[4] And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.