Story By: Sr Elaine Morzone and Moyalia Tokmak

From Sychar’s beginning, there was a dream of a possible future labyrinth in the garden. The dream lay dormant for a few years while attention was focused on developing three contemplative spaces: Creation-God’s First Incarnation (The St. Francis Garden), One in the Mystery of Suffering (spherical sculpture), the Well of Encounter. Once the foundational structure of the garden had emerged, the dream of having a labyrinth resurfaced.

At the beginning of 2023, steps were taken to find someone who might help us realise our dream and detail logistics and costs involved so that we could look for ways to raise any necessary funds. For months on end, we waited in hope for a response which never came through the channels we had set for ourselves. In early October, we made enquiries about other possibilities and within three weeks, we had the first iteration of our labyrinth. Randal and Susan Dennings from Brisbane assisted us in determining the size and style of labyrinth which suited the space available and our preferences. Randal used his creativity to develop a simple and inexpensive way of marking out the labyrinth pattern. With the use of a centre point, string radius, and a moving circumference of people pouring flour, the initial pattern for the labyrinth was held in place. Adjustments to refine the outline were made by Randal and were then painted with a line marker by David Beauchamp from St Mary’s College.

Randal and Susan honoured us by leading our first official labyrinth day on the theme “Walking the Labyrinth – Healing the Fractures of Our Divided World”. Our Sychar Christmas celebration included a Christmas labyrinth walk where we were invited to gaze into the manger where a mirror reflected back to us that we were the Christ now being born.

Our excitement about having our labyrinth turned to anxiety when the rain started to fall, and all our efforts to retain the initial imprint with the use of non-toxic weedkiller seemed to be never-ending. We realised that while we appreciated the simplicity of our grass-roots pattern, we needed to look towards something sustainable. We were led to the wisdom and artistry of Richard Jones who connected us with landscape designer Jamie Ross. Jamie, with his son Harry, created a labyrinth which exceeded all our expectations. There is a right time for everything under the sun, by this time, we had received a generous donation from the Toowoomba Theological Society, which had a humorous, elusive and circuitous journey to reach us. Just as the labyrinth itself is a metaphor for life, the whole process of establishing our “forever” labyrinth was itself a metaphor. It involved an invitation to wait, to move with the ebbs and flow, to embrace connection with others, to be open to surprise, and to recognise the value of collective wisdom.