In the summer of 2006 a group of seven people (six young adults in their early 20s and a priest), at the initiative of the Bishop of Mississippi, spent forty days together at the Gray Center near Canton, Mississippi, living as an experimental Christian community informed by the insights of Benedictine wisdom and tradition. Each day involved intentional times of prayer, manual work, study time, silence and rest.

There were two major projects:
1] Camp Caritas, a summer camp program for the children of prisoners;

2] Regular visits to Yazoo City at the edge of the Mississippi Delta, looking at the opportunities and challenges facing many people in Mississippi, and considering how the Church might best serve in that context.

Out of that forty day experience came a plan for how the Bishop’s Mission Corps might develop in the future. There are very many economically disadvantaged cities in Mississippi, struggling with a variety of social problems; therefore: