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Churches trace ancient path for spiritual renewal

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Wednesday August 13, 2003

The Dallas Morning News, via The News-Sentinel, Aug. 13, 2003
http://www.fortwayne.com/
BY WENDY HUNDLEY, The Dallas Morning News
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DALLAS – (KRT) – When Mary Kappes is feeling stressed, or wrestling with a problem, she often finds herself walking in circles.

She goes to small clearing in a wooded area behind the Unitarian Universalist Church of Oak Cliff, Texas. There, to the buzz of cicadas, she walks the circular pathway of a labyrinth built by members three years ago.

She meditates as she walks along the narrow dirt path that turns upon itself as it spirals toward the center. After reaching the small pile of rocks marking the center, she turns and follows the same path out.

“It helps me clear my mind,” she said. “It’s a great way to lower the blood pressure.”

Kappes is one of a growing number of people who are discovering this ancient tool for spiritual growth. More than ever, labyrinths are being incorporated into places of worship and other public spaces.

Unlike a maze, which seeks to confuse, labyrinths are seen as pathways to spiritual insight and clarity.

“Each experience is different, depending on where you are in your life and what’s going on,” said Ellen Dingwall, director of congregational development at the Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration. The North Dallas church built what is believed to be the area’s first permanent indoor labyrinth.

The labyrinth design, winding inward and outward again, holds symbolic meaning, she said, for those who want to focus on dropping emotional baggage as they step toward the center.

“The way out is more uplifting, prayerful, positive,” Dingwall said. “You’ve left your cares behind.”

The notion of journey “is an irresistible metaphor,” said Chaplain Mark Grace, director of pastoral care and counseling for Baylor University Medical Center, which is building an “interfaith garden of prayer” in the shape of a labyrinth.

Labyrinths predate Christianity. They are found in many ancient cultures, from Egypt to Crete to the Roman Empire. The Hopis and other Native Americans incorporated the design into their art, as did peoples in Africa, Australia and India.

Church labyrinths became popular during the Middle Ages, when they were used as symbolic substitutes for an arduous pilgrimage to Jerusalem, said Mary Anne Reed, director of the labyrinth project at Church of the Transfiguration.

“The path of the labyrinth became known as the road to Jerusalem,” she said, “and the center as the New Jerusalem.”

Labyrinths fell from favor, she said, during the Reformation of the 16th century, when many Europeans were quick to cast aside practices associated with Catholicism. By the 18th century, they were unfavorably associated with mysticism.

“The Age of Reason focused on what we could logically prove or know with tangible evidence,” she said.

But what is old has become new again.

Lauren Artress, an Episcopal priest in San Francisco, is widely credited with resurrecting the labyrinth movement in the United States in the 1990s. After visiting the 13th-century labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral in France, she brought the idea back to her church, Grace Cathedral, and in 1996 founded Veriditas, a nonprofit organization dedicated to introducing people to labyrinths.

In 1995, Reed traveled from Dallas to San Francisco to walk the Grace Cathedral labyrinth.

“I got a sense of what the rest of my life was supposed to be about,” she said. She brought the idea back to the Church of the Transfiguration, and, in 1997, a labyrinth was inlaid in the terrazzo floor of the church’s gathering area.

Since then, a number of Dallas-area churches have built indoor or outdoor labyrinths. Others buy or rent portable labyrinth “floor cloths,” made of canvas, cotton or nylon, to use on special occasions.

The first time Sally Jones walked a labyrinth, she said, she began reliving “transformative moments” in her life. As she walked toward the center, she thought about the people who have influenced her life.

“As I started my walk out, I started thinking about people whose lives I had touched,” said the longtime member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Oak Cliff.

“Because I found it such a powerful tool, I said, `We have to have one of these,’” she recalled. She started building the church’s outdoor, 44-foot labyrinth. It was completed three years ago. She thinks the motion required to walk a labyrinth is an aid to prayer and meditation. “It gives your body something to do so the mind can focus on other things.”

Because they represent spiritual journeys, Reed said, labyrinths have been readily embraced by Catholics, Episcopalians and Methodists – denominations with traditions that emphasize the worth of pilgrimage.

The trickling sound of a waterfall provides a tranquil backdrop for the new indoor labyrinth at the First United Methodist Church of Allen, Texas.

On the spring Sunday when it opened, church members stood around its perimeter, unsure of what to do.

But children, intrigued by the intricate pattern, didn’t hesitate and quickly made a game of playing along its curving pathways, recalled Associate Pastor June Franck.

For worshippers who are still uncertain, the church provides brochures with tips for walking the labyrinth, as well as suggested Scripture verses and prayers. Docents are being trained to answer questions.

Prayer shawls are also available to “tell people you’re in an attitude of prayer,” Pastor Franck said.

Hand labyrinths – which allow people to trace the pattern with finger or pen – are available for those who can’t or don’t want to walk the one-eighth-mile course, with its 28 reverses on 11 circuits.

Church member Bernie Dickson of Parker, Texas, said she likes to walk the terrazzo pathway barefoot, “so I can feel it.” She finds the exercise “another way to come closer to God.”

Churches aren’t the only ones installing labyrinths.

At Richland College, an outdoor “teaching-learning-community” labyrinth, outlined in stones and plants, is maintained by students in the school’s horticulture program.

Baylor University Medical Center’s $1.5 million interfaith garden is to be dedicated Oct. 16, to coincide with the health-care system’s centennial. Maya Angelou is to take part in a private dedication ceremony.

The garden, on the lawn of the Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center, will include a series of circular paths leading to a central prayer area.

“We don’t use the term labyrinth. It’s not quite as accessible as a prayer path,” said Chaplain Grace.

The Baptist-affiliated hospital has several Christian chapels and prayer rooms. The idea for an interfaith garden grew out of a recognition that the institution serves patients from many cultures and spiritual backgrounds, he said.

“People don’t choose to come here. They come here as a result of illness or injury,” the chaplain said. “The right thing to do is to provide space where people, regardless of their religious background, could enjoy a moment of quiet. The idea of having a garden fit in well with our healing environment.”

Even patients who are bedridden “can look down from their rooms and maybe walk the labyrinth with their eyes,” he said.

While a labyrinth may seem decidedly un-Baptist, Chaplain Grace said it’s in keeping with Christian tradition.

“Christians have traded spiritual practices from way back in history,” he said. “I see tremendous resurgence in spiritual life. People are finding ways to connect themselves to their own spiritual resources and God.

“That’s engendered a lot of sharing of ideas and practices. I see that as tremendous.”