PORT TOWNSEND — A labyrinth constructed with human hands and divine guidance was consecrated Sunday in All Soul’s Courtyard of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.
“We set out to make something,” said Margaret McGee, project chairperson.
“It took both a leap of faith and the gift of grace, because making things belongs to God.”
The labyrinth is 30 feet in diameter and made of concrete pavers laid in a circular pattern to create a narrow path that leads around and around to the center.
Everybody in the community is welcome to use the labyrinth, McGee said.
Used as a meditation tool, St. Paul’s labyrinth is a smaller version of the one embedded in the floor of Chartres Cathedral in France, McGee said.
“We started planning it a year ago,” McGee said. “It’s an exact model of the one in Chartres, only not as big.”
Intricate work
In September, the planning committee laid out the pattern on the ground in front of the parish hall to see how it fit.
Then last Monday, volunteers excavated the old gravel and replaced it with new gravel and a layer of compacted sand. Two radial square tools, built by Tim Nolan, were used to mark the circles and orient the stones.
“Without the tool, it would have been very difficult,” McGee said.