Jenan Taylor
2 May 2023
Eltham parishioners and community members hope to join a wave of meditators focused on peace at an upcoming global celebration of labyrinths.
St Margaret’s Anglican congregants will walk the church’s labyrinth for peace on World Labyrinth Day.
Celebration organisers at The Labyrinth Society aim to have people meditating from 1pm onwards in every time zone across the world.
St Margaret’s locum the Reverend Dr Linda Fiske said some of the topical issues uppermost in people’s minds were likely to include the crises in Sudan, Ukraine and Afghanistan.
Dr Fiske said walking the network of paths could be seen as a metaphor for life with the journey being long and arduous, and with unexpected turns.
“When you stand outside the labyrinth and look in, you can’t tell what the path is. So you might go off in one direction, and then find yourself doubling back. Within the first few minutes, you come quite close to the centre. And then next thing you’re sent right back out to the edge again,” Dr Fiske said.
“It has an intriguing aspect of moving towards knowledge, understanding oneness, but then also finding that there’s the unexpected, as well.”
Read more: Christian peacemakers against nuclear submarines
But Dr Fiske said the labyrinth at St Margaret’s tended to attract a wide range of people, including many who professed to be unbelievers but who had a deep love of nature.
She said she sometimes watched people approach the church grounds on Sunday mornings and go straight to wandering the labyrinth.
Dr Fiske said the walk on Saturday would start with a short discussion about aspects of prayer and then walkers could choose to focus on the birdsong in the bush around St Margaret’s to get them into a meditative state.
For people who found walking uncomfortable or too difficult, there would also be labyrinths sketched on A3 sized sheets so that people could still complete the winding journey with their fingers.
Parishioner Kathleen Toal also said in case of inclement weather, St Margaret’s had a portable labyrinth standing by which could be laid down inside the church hall.
The global labyrinth walk will take place on Saturday 6 May. For more details, see here.
For more faith news, follow The Melbourne Anglican on Facebook, Twitter, or subscribe to our weekly emails.
