Jan. 30: Walking the labyrinth
Serving Better Together program invites students to walk the labyrinth
2:35 p.m., Jan. 28, 2015--As part of the Serving Better Together programming offered during the University of Delaware’s Winter Session, students are invited by the University Religious Leaders Organization (URLO) to experience walking the labyrinth during a special event at 7 p.m., Friday, Jan. 30, at Newark United Methodist Church.
Designed to be a stress-relieving, spirit-renewing activity as Winter Session winds down, walking the candlelit labyrinth offers frazzled students a quiet, reflective space, a representative of the URLO said.
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The representative noted that the labyrinth is an ancient spiritual tool that relates to wholeness, saying, “The labyrinth represents a journey to our own center and back out again into the world. Labyrinths have long been used as a meditation and prayer tool. A labyrinth is a single path and unlike a maze, there is no trick to getting to the center and back out again. So following the path doesn't require your attention and your mind is free to rest, to listen, to explore what has been hovering unattended in your unconscious.”
Students who want to experience the labyrinth are invited to enter the church, which faces Main Street, by the side door with the brick steps. After signing in, students will be directed to the room where the labyrinth is set up.
Those who choose to walk the labyrinth will be asked to remove their shoes and walk in their socks in order to preserve it.
Participants should allow approximately 30 minutes to walk the labyrinth and should plan to arrive no later than 8 p.m. to begin.
Throughout Winter Session, UD students have gathered to explore interfaith relationships through Serving Better Together programming sponsored by URLO, Residence Life and Housing and the Office of Service Learning.
Beginning with a daylong training event led by Carr Harkrader from Interfaith Youth Core and including a service trip to work with Habitat for Humanity in Vineland, New Jersey, the students have enjoyed the diversity of a wide range of religious experiences and identities.
As part of Serving Better Together, “wInterfaith” events have included Shabbat dinner and worship with Hillel, a Taize worship experience at St. Thomas Episcopal Church and Friday’s opportunity to walk the labyrinth.