Nativity Lutheran Prayer and Memorial Garden

In our prayer and memorial garden we seek a living way to remember our loved ones and to provide a peace of serenity, beauty, and meditation. The garden also serves our congregation as a place to hold celebrations of life and worship.

The Labyrinth

Labyrinth walking can bring peace and joy to your life. An ancient symbol, labyrinths have long been used as meditation and prayer tools. It is a fascinating approach to meditation, and is claimed to have very special spiritual and physical healing attributes. The Labyrinth represents a journey to our own center and back out again into the world. Located to the east of the memorial side of the garden it is wheel chair accessible. It is a seven-circuit labyrinth fashioned after the Chartes Labyrinth in France. We invite all people in the Bend community to use this spiritual tool.

The Placement Ceremony

Families who choose to place ashes in the garden attend a short prayer service called the Placement Ceremony. During this ceremony the ashes are placed directly into a prepared hole in the ground. No container is used. The ashes become a part of the soil giving life to the garden’s many perennial and woody plants. The location of the placement is not marked and therefore known only to those present at the placement service.

Placement in the Prayer and Memorial Garden may be preferred as an alternation to a cemetery for many reasons. It is a living tribute to the life of a loved one. For those who have been a part of our congregation, placement on church grounds is like “coming home”. For many the return of the physical self to dust and incorporation into the earth seems natural. Ashes of cherished pets may also be placed.

Arrangements

Members of the congregation of Nativity who choose to use the garden for placement of ashes should first contact the Pastor through the church office to set a date for the placement ceremony. A member of the prayer and Memorial Garden committee will then contact them to make the necessary plans. The name of the deceased, date of birth and death, a picture and short biography will be recorded in a special memorial book. There is no fee for placement of ashes.

Memorials

As the garden develops, it is the intention to construct a memorial wall to place plaques with the name and date of birth, and death of deceased loved ones.

There will be inscribed brick paths to celebrate and record the lives of members of our congregation. Special occasions such as births, weddings, anniversaries may also be inscribed. Donations for items within the garden may be made to commemorate loved ones as well as life events. The garden is intended to be a part of the living history of Nativity Lutheran Church.

The Prayer and Memorial Garden Committee

As good stewards of this earth, we have pledged to construct and maintain this garden organically. We have crafted this garden with care. It will be full of color but not with grass which uses more water then any other planting. We have chosen a drip irrigation system to conserve water as well.

The Nativity Prayer and Memorial Garden consists of volunteers who will maintain this pledge as well as the garden.