Candlelight Labyrinth Walk for the Winter Solstice

Inaugural Labyrinth Service
Sunday evening, 6 pm, December 20, 2009
(Service put together by GNOUU Intern Charlie Dieterich,
in consultation with Rev. Melanie)

For this service, the Sanctuary was darkened, except for the lights of the stained glass window in the chancel and the church Christmas Tree. The Labyrinth laid in the tile floor is marked off with flickering LED tea lights (available online, discount for quantity orders).


Prelude (recorded music of Renaissance chanting, which plays during the whole service)

Greeting (Participants are greeted quietly as they take seats around the periphery.)

Chalice Lighting (Chalice set up on small table in Labyrinth center.)
From Gordon B. McKeeman

Deep calls unto deep,
joy calls unto joy,
light calls unto light.
Let the kindling of this flame
rekindle in us the inner light
of love, of peace, of hope.
And “as one flame lights another, nor grows the less,”
we pledge ourselves
to be bearers of light, wherever we are.

Winter Solstice Meditation
Adapted from Christine C. Robinson

We join our hearts and minds together in a time of meditation or prayer;
spoken, silent, sung, and shared.
It is a precious time, and all precious times want preparation,
so I invite you to settle yourself in a straight posture,
both feet grounded on the floor,
to take a deep breath, hold it until you notice your need to breathe out,
and relax.
I invite you to close your eyes,
for vision is the single most energy intensive activity of our brains.

These next few days are the days of the Winter Solstice,
a time when those who are very attentive to the skies
note that the sun, which has relentlessly moved southward on the horizon
since last June, seems to pause on its journey
before beginning to climb northwards to center again.
Solstice is a time of pause.
So… pause. Breathe. Relax. Rest. Be at peace.

Spirit of winter rest,
help us to enjoy your peace in this quiet place.
Remind us to pause during this season.
Grant us awareness, keep our gratitude fresh each day.
May the songs in our heart be blessings
and insights to us and to others
and may compassion always shine forth
from the depths of our hearts.

Labyrinth Walk Instruction
Adapted from "An Altar In The World" By Barbara Brown Taylor

Not everyone is able to walk, but most people can,
which makes walking one of the most easily available spiritual practices of all.
All it takes
is a decision to walk with some awareness,
both of who you are and what you are doing.
Where you are going is not as important,
however counterintuitive that may seem.

This truth is borne out by the labyrinth --
an ancient spirtual practice
that is enjoying a renaissance in the present century.
Laid out in a [circle] with a curling path inside,
it rarely comes with walls.
Instead, it trusts those who enter
to stay on the path voluntarily.
…[I]t includes switchbacks and detours,
just like life.
It has one entrance, and it leads to the center.

The important thing to note
is that the path goes nowhere.
The journey is the point.
The walking is the thing.
…As I said earlier, not everyone is able to walk.
Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk
who figured out a way around that reality.
At Plum Village, his monastic community in southern France,
he teaches many forms of attentiveness, including walking meditation…

When someone comes to Plum Village in a wheelchair,
an instructor finds a comfortable place
for that person to sit and watch the walkers.
He asks her to pick one of the walkers,
focusing intently on what that person is doing
as she deepens her own breathing…

After about twenty minutes of this,
most people discover at least two things:
first that they can do walking meditation
without leaving their chairs,
and second, that their bodies are not as localized as they had thought.
Watching the walkers,
they sometimes lose track of whose foot is in the air…

Augustine of Hippo [wrote] "It is solved by walking."
What is "it"?
If you want to find out,
then you will have to do your own walking,
spiritually or physically.

Our labyrinth leads from the entry to the center.
You are invited to settle your mind,
and when you are ready, come up and we will give you a LED tea light
for you to take to the center.
Do not walk as slowly
as those Buddhist monks who take five minutes savoring a single step.
Instead walk as if you were at a graduation ceremony,
going to begin a new life.

Your breathing should be steady and calm.
You might check it each time you turn.

And when you reach the center, you may leave your tea-light, and
-- avoiding cross traffic --
walk across the back of the Labyrinth, and then back to your seat.

Spirit of winter rest,
help us to enjoy your peace in this quiet place.
Remind us to pause during this season.
Grant us awareness, keep our gratitude fresh each day.
May the songs in our heart be blessings
and insights to us and to others
and may compassion always shine forth
from the depths of our hearts. [From Christine C. Robinson]

Walking the Labyrinth

Expression of Gratitude
This Labyrinth, this sacred space,
Resurrected from the flood waters,
Is a labor of love by essentially one person
Who gave of her time, her talent, and her labor,
Spending her own funds for supplies and equipment,
Spending also almost all of her time from work
And even her sick days,
To complete this Labyrinth.
The church’s Board of Trustees has dedicated
This evening’s offering as an expression of gratitude
To help partially reimburse
The talented and dedicated artist who created it.
A heart basket is being passed among you –
Please give from your heart.

Closing Words
From “The Moment of Magic” by Victoria E. Safford

Now is the moment of magic,
when the whole, round earth turns again toward the sun,

and here's a blessing:
the days will be longer and brighter now,
even before the winter settles in to chill us.

Now is the moment of magic,
when people beaten down and broken,
with nothing left but misery and candles
and their own clear voices,
kindle tiny lights and whisper secret music,

and here's a blessing:
the dark universe is suddenly illuminated
by the lights of the menorah,
suddenly ablaze with the lights of the kinara,
and the whole world is glad and loud with winter singing.

Now is the moment of magic,
when an eastern star beckons the ignorant
toward an unknown goal,

and here's a blessing:
they find nothing in the end but an ordinary baby,
born at midnight, born in poverty, and the baby's cry,
like bells ringing,
makes people wonder as they wander through their lives,
what human love might really look like,
sound like, feel like.
Now is the moment of magic,

and here's a blessing:
we already possess all the gifts we need;
we've already received our presents:
ears to hear music,
eyes to behold lights,
hands to build true peace on earth
and to hold each other tight in love.

Extinguish Chalice
We are a small but special group,
For we are the first ones to walk the Labyrinth at the Solstice.
We have been at one with our thoughts in the dark,
We have watched as the Light made its way around and around.
We extinguish the lights now,
But not what the light means to us.
Let us now depart in silence, in peace, in love.

Departure in silence