Garden of Grace
A Place of Prayer & Meditation
According to our 75th anniversary book detailing the history of Grace, the playground on the southwest portion of our property was fenced in around 1982. For three decades, children and youth of the congregation—as well as children from groups using our building—enjoyed this space. More recently, we have seldom utilized the playground equipment and have only occasionally used the space for hunts and miscellaneous events.
After our misfired attempt to partner with True North to build transitional housing on the south portion of our property, Jonathan Vento and his wife Lori, the principals of True North, offered to gift us a renovation of this space. Jonathan had apparently remembered me speaking in a dreamy voice about the faraway possibility of converting the playground into a community garden. With the rapid gentrification of our neighborhood, with concrete covering even more surfaces than in years past, green space in downtown Phoenix has become scarce. The result is even higher temperatures in an already scorching heat, but plants and trees can lower the temperatures and provide food to be used for our congregational programs.
After some prayerful deliberation with the council, I presented the gift Jonathan wanted to give to the Grace community at our annual meeting this past January. Plans involved an orchard with citrus trees and a labyrinth for prayer and meditation. Thank you for affirming the opportunity to fill more of our property with living things and space for prayer and meditation! The Garden of Grace is now nearly complete.
The space is called Garden of Grace: A Place of Prayer & Meditation. When you wander to the south side of our property, you will likely notice first and foremost the labyrinth created by white bags against small, dark gravel. Spiritual director Teresa Blythe teaches that the labyrinth “is an ancient prayer practice involving a winding path that leads ultimately to a center and then winds back out to the point where it began. It is not difficult to walk—there are no dead ends as in a maze. The path is symbolic of the journey inward toward God’s illumination and then outward, grounded in God and empowered to act in the world” (92-93). She further describes how to walk a labyrinth:
- Pause at the beginning of the labyrinth. Ask God to walk with you and to help you through the stages of prayer.
- Purgation. The winding path leading to the center allows you time to release all that is within you that distracts you from God. Empty yourself and let go of a need to control your life. Practice this purgation all the way to the center.
- Illumination. The center is a place to stop and be fully present to the moment with God. Sit, kneel, or stand in the center for prayer and meditation as long as you like. Be with God in any way you desire—through silent or worded prayers.
- Union. The winding path leading away from the center allows you time to integrate any insight you received in prayer. Walk this path with gratitude.
- Pause at the end of the labyrinth, which is also where you began this journey. Thank God for being with you, both in this prayer and in the life journey that it symbolizes (93-94).
If you would like to read more about labyrinths or different ways to pray, I highly recommend Teresa Blythe’s book 50 Ways to Pray: Practices from Many Traditions and Times published in 2006 by Abingdon Press out of Nashville. Teresa is a spiritual director and pastor in the United Church of Christ whose office is located at First Congregational United Church of Christ just up 3rd Street from Grace.
The labyrinth was created by Agave Farms, located just north of Indian School along Central Avenue, with their unique bag system. Each growing season, we will have different plants growing in the bags that will be planted by Agave Farms. This season, flowers will grow, but in the fall and moving into the future, Garden of Grace will provide vegetables that can be used for our congregational programs. Because the plants do not come into contact with the native soil, weeds are sparse; thus, care for the plants is quite simple. Surrounding the labyrinth are citrus trees, so we will one day enjoy a shaded space for prayer and meditation. Around the perimeter of the space are roses that will—with God’s help—grow tall.
Garden of Grace will be open and available for use on Sunday mornings as well as during office hours (Monday-Thursday, 9:00 am-12:00 pm). If you would like access to the space for prayer and meditation at any other time, please let me know, and we can easily arrange that. We are simply trying out making the garden available at these times and may adjust the schedule as we figure out what works best.
We give thanks to God for Grace member and artist Alison Sigala who will provide a sign with the space’s name at the entrance of Garden of Grace. This sign will help our entire community know the purpose of the space, namely prayer and meditation.
We give thanks to God for the generosity of Jonathan and Lori Vento in helping us create this space for the enrichment of our congregation and the community.