Quiet Places, Sacred Spaces: The Prayer Garden of Main Street United Methodist Church

My daughter nestled into me on the small wooden bench, her head pressed into my shoulder, my left arm wrapped around her small frame. “When I grow up,” she said, “I am going to come here every day.” This quiet time alone in the prayer garden was just what she and I needed at this moment.  We had way too much on our calendars and been rushing more than usual. The children were tired, I was feeling stressed, and my impatient tone had led to tears. We needed a moment of stillness, a moment of peace, and time to reconnect with ourselves and each other. We needed to recharge our spiritual batteries, so to speak. The Prayer GardenMain Street United Methodist Church in downtown South Boston seemed like the perfect place for that.

When retired art teacher Sally Lambrecht returned to South Boston from an art seminar she attended in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1998, she brought with her the inspiration from a long time established prayer garden she had visited there. Lambrecht suggested a prayer garden as a use for an unoccupied plot of land located between Main Street United Methodist Church and First Baptist Church, and just across the street from First Presbyterian Church. The idea was well received, a committee was formed, and work began in 1999 on the project, with the goal of developing a garden which would be open to the public to serve as an ecumenical quiet place for prayer or meditation.  Initially, the land had to be cleared, which meant that trash, debris, and poison ivy were removed by the truckload. Materials and labor were then donated by church and community members.  The first plantings were seven crepe myrtle trees all donated by committee members as memorials to their families. Members of the Main Street UMC congregation shared bulbs from their yards and home places and over six hundred bulbs were planted that fall. Instead of Easter lilies, the congregation brought more than seventy azaleas to church the following Easter. These were then planted in the Shade Garden area next to the fence by the Methodist Education Building. An armillary, donated by the Memorial Committee of the church, and memorial St. Francis statuary were placed there. Azaleas were also planted in the Children's Garden, in which stone benches, a walkway, the beautiful Burton Memorial Fountain, and St. Anthony statuary can be found. Stones were hand selected at a local quarry to build the stone retaining wall, while old curbstones from South Boston city streets were used for the steps which lead to a beautiful aggregate sidewalk leading into the Garden from Main Street.

The first item to be placed in the Meditation Garden, the area closest to Main Street, was a nine-foot copper cross, designed and donated by the late artist and sculptor Robert Cage. This was set in a huge stone for the second Easter of the Garden. Because the cross is visible to the three churches in the immediate area, he created a three-dimensional rather than a flat cross. Cage previously said that he wanted to create something in which a cross could be seen when viewed from any direction.  The meditation area is planted in only green and white blooming flowers, shrubs and trees, including a Star Magnolia. The surrounding garden space is filled with azaleas, peonies, tulips, dogwood trees, and a myriad other flowers and growing things. Because of the creative choice of garden plants and flowers, and because of the efficient and water-saving irrigation system, the garden blooms beautifully year round. 

The Prayer Garden’s organizers, planners, and volunteers describe the garden as truly a community effort, in which volunteers came from around the community and from different churches and neighborhoods to contribute. Twelve years after the April 2003 dedication, my daughter and I sat together in The Prayer Garden, realizing its mission as "a quiet place, to be still and know that He is God.”   This tucked away garden spot is a place of beauty, a place of reflection, and a place of peace.

Gardens are beautiful, peaceful, and can be a pleasant change of pace for young children, encouraging wonder and reflection even for little ones. Years ago my husband and I visited the Elizabethan Gardens in Manteo, North Carolina. Unsure of how our children would react to visiting manicured floral gardens while at the beach, we were reluctant to take them along.  On the contrary, our children were enamoured with the gardens, which have become a favorite attraction in the Outer Banks. They particularly enjoyed the garden scavenger hunt. Each child was given a checklist of items for which to search upon entering the gardens. Items included butterflies, various flowers, rose bushes, bumblebees, statuaries, frogs, ladybugs, fountains, and the like. Finding each item increased their excitement about spending time in the garden.

When visiting a garden with children, consider introducing your child to the garden with very simple, minimally structured activities. Take books to read, snacks for a picnic, or a sketchpad with colored pencils. Take a stroll, enjoy the flowers, and talk about what your child sees. Plan your own scavenger hunt, but allow your child to make the checklist himself. For young children, see how many colors you can find in the garden. You may have a favorite hidden garden spot close to home, or you may choose to visit one of the large and well known gardens throughout Virginia teeming with both beauty and history.   Consider visiting one of these gardens this summer, and when you do, be sure to heed the advice written in stone at the Prayer Garden, which reads, “Let the peace of this place surround you as you sit or kneel quietly. Let the hurry and the worry of your life fall away.”

Charlottesville
·        Ash Lawn-Highland, home of James Monroe, features boxwood gardens overlooking a working farm.
·        Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson, is an architectural masterpiece with winding paths bordered by flowers and beautiful oval-shaped flowerbeds.
Chase City
·        MacCallum More Museum and Gardens features an arboretum, herb, wildflower, rose and themed gardens as well as nine fountains and eclectic imported works of art.
Lynchburg
·        The Anne Spencer House and Garden was home to the internationally acclaimed poet of the Harlem Renaissance. The garden served as an inspiration for much of her poetry and may be toured by appointment only.
·        Old City Cemetery features a butterfly garden, lotus pond and a garden of 19th-century shrubs and roses.
Montpelier Station
·        Montpelier, home of James and Dolley Madison features a 200-year-old-growth forest as well as a landscape arboretum, beautiful restored formal gardens all overlooking the breathtaking vistas of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Richmond
·        Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden features more than 25 acres of gardens, including a children's garden with colorful plants and shrubs to attract butterflies, birds and other nectar.
·        Maymont is a 100-acre Victorian country estate. Visitors can wander the geometrically shaped beds in the Italian Garden and enjoy the relaxing noise from the cascade fountain, designed from a similar feature in the Villa Torlonia near Rome.
·        Agecroft Hall is a Tudor estate that originally stood in Lancashire, England, and was re-constructed on the rolling banks of the James River. Agecroft's grounds include the fragrance garden, a sunken garden that's modeled after the pond garden at Hampton Court Palace in England.
·        Virginia House, is a reconstructed 12th-century priory also dismantled and brought to Richmond from England in 1925 with terraced gardens overlooking the James River.
·        Tuckahoe Plantation, Thomas Jefferson’s boyhood home, includes rambling gardens beautiful from March through October.

I originally wrote this as a feature article in the July 2015 issue of Showcase Magazine. Thanks to Showcase for letting me share my love of this special place with their readers. 

xoxo, Erin

Southern Virginia Mom

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