The Labyrinth at Longport

The labyrinth at the Church of the Redeemer in Longport was a parish project inspired by the Reverend Dabney J. Carr III, funded by church neighbor Milda Balsh, and designed and built by Joseph Craner. It is a full-scale copy of the labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral in France, which dates from around 1220 A.D., and like the Chartres labyrinth it has an eleven-circuit design divided into four quadrants. The path is presented as a sacred journey with no right or wrong way to walk it, inviting reflection, spontaneity, and a pace guided by the body, sometimes with meditation or a repeated phrase. Its journey is understood as a three-part mystical path: a movement to the center as a time of purge and release, a central stage of illumination, and a return path as a stage of union in which one realizes being in the hands of God and acting through divine empowerment, gaining strength, integration, and wholeness.

Longport, New Jersey · United States