In an effort to foster a community-oriented environment to nurture and strengthen the spiritual gr…

By News Dept.

In an effort to foster a community-oriented environment to nurture and strengthen the spiritual growth of its members, Goshen College’s Campus Ministries Department will create an outdoor labyrinth on campus.

Campus Minister Sylvia Shirk Charles, describing the single-path maze pattern mowed into an open grass field, said, “A labyrinth serves as a spiritual tool with a journey theme; it is a place to walk while praying.” The circular design is 85 feet in diameter with 10 feet of open space in its circular center.

Different from mazes, individuals travel one path in a labyrinth and encounter no dead-ends. Shirk Charles said a labyrinth can quiet the mind as an individual follows the path to the center, a process that serves as a metaphor for a spiritual journey.

The labyrinth will be used as a tool for prayer exercises during the Student Women’s Conference at GC in October in addition to the campus ministries groups.

According to Shirk Charles, the labyrinth concept was first utilized during the Middle Ages at the time of the Crusades, when some medieval Christians were unable to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Christian church leaders created inlaid labyrinth patterns on cathedral floors to symbolize the journey to the Holy Land.

The idea for GC’s labyrinth was suggested by Goshen resident Laura Barnett and Meribeth Shank, a GC graduate, both of whom utilized the labyrinth at the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Indiana.

After consulting with designers who created the college’s meditation garden in addition to GC’s physical plant and space planning committee, arrangements were made to locate the labyrinth on the east side of campus. GC grounds supervisor Craig Johnson, Barnett, Shirk Charles and students Gina Holsopple and Laura Schildt assisted Wooster, Ohio, resident Beulah Steiner, who came specifically to lay out the design and mow the labyrinth for the first time.