CAMBRIDGE — If all goes as planned, a place of quiet, mobile contemplation will grow in Trinity Park next spring.

A 20-metre diameter labyrinth in front of Trinity Anglican Church is intended as a spiritual pit stop along the Grand River — and maybe a tourist attraction, too.

“I think people will come and walk the labyrinth.  It’s open to everybody and I don’t think you could walk by it without saying ‘I’d like to try it,’ ” said Ross Anderson, a retired architect on the church committee preparing the project.

Story continues below map showing Trinity Park.

A labyrinth isn’t a maze where you can’t see where you’re going; it’s not a place of entertainment carved through corn fields or hedges in gardens. A maze is a modern version of a labyrinth first created 4,000 years ago.  

Think of a long, winding path folded upon itself in a within a circle:  walk the path in to the centre, then follow it all the way out again. All the while, your thoughts are your companion.

“This is designed as an inspiration, to think about things,” Anderson said.

“You wouldn’t run around it, you would walk around it looking at your own imagination . . . that’s the reason the church has agreed to do this . . . It’s something very important to religious insight.”

The idea of a labyrinth in the park in front of Blair Road church was first suggested 15 years ago, by the late Barb Lemm, the parish nurse.  People liked the idea, a committee was formed, but little happened.  Two years ago, Anderson joined the committee and helped push the idea forward.  Also helping was a bequest from Lemm’s estate.

So far, about $30,000 in donations has the project started.  Ken Hoyle, a Cambridge landscape architect, drew up plans and estimated the total cost at $80,000.

The city’s heritage committee endorses the idea, in the historic corner of old Galt near Queen’s Square.  Coun. Pam Wolf sits on the committee and is enthusiastic about the labyrinth. 

A grant is under consideration by the Ontario Trillium Foundation.  Anderson is hopeful $50,000 in provincial lottery money will be allocated by April.

“Just about everything is in place,” Anderson said.

If the money flows as expected, construction would start in spring and all the concrete in place.

Two old trees must be removed to make way for the labyrinth. Twelve new trees will replace them.

The Trinity labyrinth will be modeled after the centre of the bigger one behind Toronto’s Eaton Centre, adjacent to Church of Holy Trinity at Queen and Yonge streets.

Along with the big labyrinth, the Cambridge plan calls for installation of a “finger labyrinth.”  It will be on a pedestal near the big one, for people who can’t see to walk, Anderson said.

“We will have one in Braille, in bronze or stone,” he said.

Anderson expects the Trinity labyrinth will become a tourist attraction, like they are in Europe. Travellers seek out the walking paths found inside churches and parks, as part of their vacation.  Anderson said there are plans to add a couple of benches to give people a spot to stop and relax.

There are other labyrinths in the area, according to www.labyrinthlocator.com,

In Kitchener, there’s one at St. James-Rosemount United church on Sherwood Drive, and the Unity Centre Kingsway Drive. There’s another at Harcourt Memorial United Church on Dean Ave in Guelph.  There also labyrinths in Brantford, Hamilton and Burlington.

Trinity Park is a 36-by-42 metres patch of green at Blair Road and Grand Avenue. To passersby, it looks like a public park complete with a diagonal, paved pathway. It’s surrounded by concrete posts and a chain fence.

It’s actually church property, given in 1844 by Galt founders William Dickson and Absalom Shade.

While everyone is welcome to use the Trinity Park, Anderson said there’s a curious legal maneuver done annually to ensure the church never loses ownership by default.

“This is a public park 364 days of the year,” Anderson said.

“That other day, a chain goes across here,” he said, pointing to the gap between posts flanking the walkway entrance at Melville Street North.

“People can step over the chain, but it’s the church’s park that day.”