An outdoor prayer labyrinth has been created in Birstall for the church and wider community to explore and wander at their leisure.
The everyday prayer resource can be found on the lawn to the left of St James Church in the village and has been created by NEARER, a Fresh Expression and very small missional community in the area.
The labyrinth was the idea of Pioneer, Gill Chester, who wanted to create a peaceful space where people could go to think, pray and reflect on life.
“Essentially, walking a labyrinth is an opportunity to take time to stop, reflect, spend time with yourself and, if you want, with God,” says Gill.
The intricate pathways can be used in many different ways – perhaps to help explore feelings around the loss of someone, or a situation that has had a profound effect on your life. Or to recognise and reflect upon God’s wonderful creation and feel close to Him in the natural surroundings.
Right now, we may feel the need to release our feelings of what life looked like before Covid, to receive the reality of life now, within these confines, and think about how different the future might look.
These thoughts are particularly significant in the Diocese of Leicester as we look to the future and work closely with one another through the Shaped By God Together process.
Gill has personal experience of using a labyrinth to help her deal with the death of a close family member.
“I always thought they were a bit ‘out there’, but after my sister’s death, I walked a labyrinth and used it to try and make sense of what was going on in my mind and to find a way forward,” she explains.
The idea of creating one in Birstall came to Gill very early on in lockdown, when she was helping to run a small food bank as part of the Soar Valley Community food project.
“We were storing food in the church and I was walking back and forth on a regular basis and looking at the lawn thinking, ‘that could be used as a labyrinth.’
“I decided not to pursue it at the time, as we are in an interregnum and the church wardens had a lot on their plate, but it was an idea that just wouldn’t go away - God was certainly nudging me – and when we were released from lockdown, I approached them and we were given the go ahead.”
Gill called upon labyrinth ‘experts’ and carried out a lot of research to find the perfect pattern of pathways.
The simplest idea would have been to just go round and come back again, but Gill liked the idea of four quadrants representing the four seasons and four stages of life, and a more convoluted path.
Of course, the process required lots of measuring, and the labyrinth took a few months to evolve into its full glory.
“We tried mowing it in the middle of August, but you couldn’t actually see it, so we had to wait until the end of September,” says Gill.
As it’s a mown labyrinth, the lawn can still be used over the top for other things, such as the church fair and by community groups for their activities.
“It will stay for as long as someone is prepared to keep mowing it in. I hope that it’s a permanent fixture,” says Gill. “The man who mows it is not part of the church and I didn’t expect him to get so involved, but he is brilliant and he knows the lawn mower and all its idiosyncrasies.”
The labyrinth has been publicised locally, but is there for anyone who would like to visit it. It is currently limited to one person or one household at a time, and these rules must be adhered to.
There is also an email address to write to, if you would like to share your experiences.
“Even if we never find out who uses it, God will know,” says Gill. “We just pray that people will find peace here.”
You can find the labyrinth at St. James Church, Church Hill, Birstall, LE4 4DN. For more information, visit: www.nearergroup.org. Email your thoughts to: nearergroup@gmail.com