Published: March 28, 2008 11:56 am      

Labyrinth will offer place of peace, meditation downtown

Members of The First Christian Church “Disciples of Christ,” located at 227 East Main Street, will be constructing and dedicating a prayer garden to Morehead on April 27.

“Several of us were talking about what to do with the property where the old Hogge house (Faith Annex) was. We felt an obligation to keep up our building due to our being a downtown church. We got an estimate on making it up to code so we could keep it. The church board decided it had to be razed. It was a hard decision,” said First Christian Church Congregational President and Morehead State University Professor Yvonne Baldwin.

“We are a downtown church and want to stay one,” said the church’s pastor, the Rev. Molly Smothers.

Baldwin said she and members of her church wanted to come up with something with a spiritual meaning. An avid gardener, she decided to look through some of her garden books. It was in one of those books she found a picture of a labyrinth.

“I took it to Reverend Molly. I told her about my idea. She liked the idea. So I went online to research labyrinths,” Baldwin said.

She found that labyrinths are popular in this country. She decided the labyrinth needed some flowers. So she did research on some Kentucky flowers. Like most gardeners, Baldwin went to some of her friends who do gardening. She asked for their input. Then she drew a model of the garden.

When all her information was gathered, she took it to the church board, which approved of her idea. And so they decided to dedicate the garden to the community.

“We want to offer a place of peace and tranquility in the middle of downtown,” Smothers said.

“We (the church) are very excited about it,” Baldwin said

“The labyrinth is a traditional design found in the Chartres Cathedral in France. That labyrinth is over 800 years old,” she said. “The patterns are a little different. Some have paths that do not lead anywhere.”

The model that was chosen is unicursal, which means one course. Many labyrinths have mazes and paths but this one has paths that end up in the center of the garden. It is a circular pattern, which is divided into fourths. After making the pilgrimage around the winding paths to the center, one would follow the same paths back out of the labyrinth. So one would walk the labyrinth twice.

“It will be very pretty,” Baldwin said.

Baldwin said the labyrinth has special meanings.

“The path is symbolic of life and life’s struggles. The center represents struggle between good and evil. Not necessarily between life and death but heaven and hell.”

“The reason we chose to call it a faith garden is all it takes to get to the center is to stay on the path of faith,” Baldwin said.

“It is a form of meditation,” Baldwin said. “The idea is to take your mind off everything else.”

Church members and community volunteers will plant creeping thyme, liriope, day lillies, roses, lavender and Easter lillies in the garden. Also the church has bricks they plan to use as memorials for those wanting to honor loved ones and congregational members. Also the garden will have stone benches for people to sit on to meditate either before or after their walk.

The trees that were already on the property will be preserved and will be a special part of the prayer garden.

“I’m glad to preserve the trees that are on the property. There is a Japanese Magnolia tree in front and in the back is a Pink Dogwood,” Baldwin added.

“It will be a lovely green space for one thing,” Baldwin said. “We are hoping it will attract a lot people there who will enjoy the beauty of the green space and what the labyrinth represents.”

Also Baldwin will be helping her church’s youth class create a special garden of their own. Children ages 4 to 10 years old will make handprints into a slab of cement within their garden. That garden will be located near the labyrinth. Baldwin said this garden and the cemented handprints would be a special memory for the children to look back on when they are older.

“It was an opportunity to do something for my church. It combines two spiritual things for me. Art and gardening are two things I enjoy the most in life,” Baldwin.

The planting of the flowers and the brick laying will be done the day of the dedication. People from other churches who have gifts in gardening, landscaping and masonry will help with the construction of the garden.

For information about labyrinths and their meanings go online at www.labyrinthsociety.org or veriditas.org.