History of the Grace Labyrinth

Grace Church is a community of worshippers who began meeting in homes in 1992. Later the group met at the Bainbridge High School Library and then spent ten years at the Masonic Temple, during which time ten acres of land were purchased on Day Road. The church building on Day Road was consecrated in June 2003 and remains Grace’s home today.

In the mid-1990s while in the Masonic Temple, some members of the community developed an interest in labyrinths inspired by the work of the Reverend Lauren Artress at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Artress was a leader in the United States in the exploration of labyrinths and spirituality.  At the time of the Oklahoma City bombings, Grace Church hosted a labyrinth walk at the Masonic Temple. One of the people who took advantage of that opportunity was Kathie McCarthy. She was an active wife and mother of two children, and she wanted to find a way to quiet herself. Walking the labyrinth at that event was a powerful experience and a turning point for her.

Kathie’s mother was simultaneously discovering both the labyrinth and walking meditation as important spiritual tools. She invited Kathie to a weekend retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh where they learned walking mediation. She also invited Kathie to spend a week in Chartres with Lauren Artress. Kathie’s mother and father, Marge and Bob McCarthy, went on to found the Labyrinth Resource Group in Santa Fe, NM. They later wrote “Kids on the Path,” a manual for getting labyrinths into schools, and also built many labyrinths in and around Santa Fe.

Walking the ancient pathways at Chartres Cathedral opened Kathie’s awareness to Jesus the man, as distinct from Christianity. There was a moment when she imagined Jesus approaching the grand doorways of Chartres, then turning around and walking away. “Not my place,” she imagined him saying. These moments changed her perspective on Christianity in general and allowed her to enter more fully into life at Grace. By this time, she had roughed out a stone and dirt labyrinth in her yard and was persistently asking the vicar, Bill Harper, about building a labyrinth at Grace. He liked the idea, but thought it wasn’t the right time yet.

One day the vicar called Kathie and asked if she wanted to find a spot for the labyrinth, now. She was aware that the careful placement of a labyrinth mattered. She walked and prayed until one spot felt right. There was still heavy machinery on the church building site, so a relatively flat area was cleared for the labyrinth. For two years, when time allowed she slowly deciphered Robert Ferré’s manual for building a labyrinth. As it took shape over time, people began walking it and bringing their own stones to add to the labyrinth.

This version of the labyrinth lasted about one year. As progress was made toward the construction of a church building, it was determined that an upper driveway and parking area needed to be created but the labyrinth was in the path of the upper driveway. The women who then were walking and weeding and caring for the labyrinth dubbed themselves “Our Ladies of the Buckets” as they undid the labyrinth, piling the treasured stones into buckets. Those stones lived in a large pile in the walkway approaching the church for a year until a new site was carefully selected. This time Nate Thomas, a parishioner and architect who served on our Landscape Committee, was involved so the site was prepared professionally. It was excavated to a depth that would assure minimal vegetation growth. Then it was backfilled with compacted, clean, washed, crushed rock and topped with chip/seal gravel. In 2003, the cost was about $7,000.

Kathie did the design work. Having a second chance was an opportunity to refine her techniques and invite more people to help. One such technique was to use a 2x4 board with big bolts, which she pushed around the circle like a broom to mark the paths. The labyrinth is a Chartres design with 11 circuits and is forty-eight feet wide.  She augmented the original supply of stones by asking members of the church to bring round, smooth, fist-sized stones, which was a wonderful way to involve others in feeling a sense of ownership and pride in the labyrinth. Stones were laid out in a color scheme in the four quadrants: red, green, black, and white. The Native American medicine wheel was the inspiration for laying the stones out in this manner.

As we write this, it is 2025. Kathie McCarthy and a group of seasoned parishioners have done the work of weeding and maintaining the labyrinth throughout the years. Integrating the labyrinth into Grace’s budget has been a recent important step so that as the current group of labyrinth guardians age, the labyrinth will continue to be maintained and loved.

The Grace labyrinth is always open and available to anyone who comes.  Over the years there has been some specific programming in conjunction with a liturgy or tied to events on the calendar – full moon, solstice, a new year.  Musical instruments, candles, flowers, and balloons have been spotted in the labyrinth on various occasions.

Mostly, the labyrinth is a ministry of Grace for members and any visitors to use as they wish.  Occasionally, the Grace publications will remind readers that the labyrinth is a spiritual tool available to them as well as a lovely spot to be quiet, to meditate, to watch an eagle, to meet a coyote, or to skip for joy – as children do almost every week.

The labyrinth is a metaphor for life, which is why we cherish the dynamic construction of this particular labyrinth. Weeds emerge and stones get knocked out of place. Anyone who spends much time there knows that a tidy pile of coyote poop right at the center is simply another moment to smile and say, “Yes, here we all are.”

The experience of walking the labyrinth seems never to be the same as the last time one walked it. Melissa West sums it up well in her book, Exploring the Labyrinth.

“The labyrinth provides a strong, sage container for the ups and downs of our emotional lives. When we walk the sacred space of the labyrinth, we are reminded that all the twists and turns, the highs and lows of our lives are sacred as well.”