This past Sunday we blessed the land where work soon begins to construct a labyrinth at Christ Church. It’s exciting to have another project beginning, and not just because it’s one more thing to check off our master plan project list. The Christ Church Labyrinth will be a holy place on a campus that is already a holy experience for many. I have walked labyrinths for over 30 years, going back to my youth ministry days as a teenager. It will be wonderful to have one here for regular use.
If you’re not familiar with them, labyrinths are often thought of as mazes, however modern labyrinths have only one way in and one way out. Their earliest appearance in the historic record, stretching back thousands of years, was more of a maze concept, but about five hundred years before Jesus, the single-path version of labyrinths became common. Within a few centuries of Jesus’ ministry, Christians were using labyrinths for devotional purposes. Walking the labyrinth is a spiritual journey, a pilgrimage of sorts, every time you walk it. There are different ways to walk the labyrinth and different meditations to use. For example, one might pray for something on the way in, pause in the center to meet God and listen, and then pray again on the walk out. There are other prayerful formats, too.
Labyrinths are now all over the place; thousands of them are registered with a labyrinth organization that tracks them in this country. Most are religious-affiliated, but not all. Secular labyrinths have popped up on hospital and educational campuses, and in public places, like the one recently installed in Brunswick. Our Labyrinth design will be based on the Chartres Cathedral labyrinth, laid in its stone floor around the year 1200. It is beautiful (pictured on the left) and will be open to the public during daylight hours year-round. If you haven’t seen where it will be located, it will be nestled in the wooded area along the path to the Wesley Memorial Garden. It will be about 60 feet across and etched with color in concrete so that it will hold up to local conditions.
We have spent a fair amount of time in recent years helping the congregation experience contemplative practices, and the labyrinth will continue that process. We envision a labyrinth guild, who will help us use the labyrinth in the parish and with the public. Guild members will help us make sure we care for the labyrinth, train persons to lead labyrinth walks, and communicate with the wider community about opportunities to use the labyrinth. We’re going to start the conversation about this holy work this summer, even before the labyrinth is finished. If you’re interested, we have scheduled a meeting for Wednesday, June 29, at 11:00 am. If you’d like to be a part of this early informational meeting, please let me know (tom@ccfssi.org). Don’t worry if you can’t make it; we’ll be having other meetings.
We’ll keep talking and teaching about the labyrinth in the months and years to come. All of us can benefit from some spiritual journey-taking from time to time. It can really be a comfort when we need it, or lead to insight when we’re floundering; it can sharpen discernment, and it can clear the mind; and it can be so much more. The labyrinth will be finished later this summer, and blessed when our Bishop comes in September. I look forward to taking journeys on it without leaving Christ Church’s grounds. I hope you’ll join me on one of them!
Tom+
O God, you called your servant Abraham from Ur in Chaldea, watching over him in all his wanderings, and guided the Hebrew people as they crossed the desert. Guard all your children who, for love of your Name, set out on spiritual and physical journeys. Be our companion on the way, our guide at the crossroads, our strength in weariness, our defense in dangers, our shelter on the path, our shade in heat, our light in darkness, our comfort in discouragement, and the firmness of our intentions; that through your guidance, ‘we shall never cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.’ Amen.
(Sources: Adaptation of The Codex Calixtinus, 12 century; quotation from T.S. Eliot’s Little Gidding)
Photo Credit: Chartres Cathedral pattern by Ssolbergj and shared via Creative Commons license (CC BY-SA 3.0)