St. John’s Cathedral & the Quiet Garden Movement

The Quiet Garden Movement
St. John’s Cathedral, member since 2007

How did St. John’s Cathedral become involved in the international Quiet Garden Trust? What does it have to do with our Quiet Garden Days?

Quiet Gardens are the vision of Philip Roderick, an Anglican priest working in the Diocese of Oxford, England. The first Quiet Garden opened at Stoke Poges in Buckinghamshire, England in 1992 but the story began long before that.

An experience Roderick had when he was 14-years old on holiday in St. David’s, Wales, was transformative, making him suddenly aware of a “different reality, a depth to things” of which he’d been previously unaware. On the spray-swept beaches, ancient cliffs and ruined St. Non’s monastery in Wales, he encountered a woman who consistently opened her heart and her home to individuals she met around the city.

Here the vision slowly began to form within: “a network of pilgrim centers, a lattice work of prayer and hospitality, comfort for weariness, laughter for enlightenment, nurture for the quest.”

Some 18 years later, his vision began to materialize. One day while enjoying the peace of his own garden it occurred to him that all that was needed for this simple ministry of hospitality and prayer was a home and a garden.

The ministry has grown steadily with about 300 gardens found in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Africa and India as well as Europe. Ours at St. John’s Cathedral was among the first 275, joining other local sites such as Victoria and Robert Freeman’s The House on Cherry Street, Oasis Garden at Palms Presbyterian Church and Melanie’s Garden, a home garden in Jacksonville.

The concept has spread to include quiet places in churches such as our own, schools, hospitals, private homes as well as inner city areas and most recently, prisons.

The common mission to which all members commit is a dedication to prayer and solitude, of offering spiritual refreshment and places of stillness and beauty.

So…how do the Center for Prayer & Spirituality’s Quiet Garden Days—known for 15 years as Monastic Saturdays and Silent Saturdays—fit into all of this? We share and carry out the mission through our fall–spring offerings that provide time and sacred place for prayer, quiet and inner solitude in Holy Communion Chapel and the various surrounding gardens. We live into Mark 6:31 when Jesus said, “Come away with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

We at the cathedral warmly welcome both friend and stranger to partake in the ministry of hospitality and prayer that inspired the Rev. Philip Roderick more than 15 years ago.

An Illustrious group of Quiet Garden Movement Patrons includes:

Richard Foster, writer and speaker on prayer

Gerard W. Hughes, SJ, writer and speaker on spirituality, peace and justice issues

Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia, Assistant Bishop, Orthodox Archdiocese of Thyateira    and Great Britain

Margaret Magdalene Evening, writer and spiritual director

The Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster

The Rt. Rev. John Pritchard, Bishop of Oxford

Professor Sir Ghillean Prance, former Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Esther de Waal, international speaker and writer on spirituality