LOGAN SQUARE — Come and find the quiet center.
That's the message that the pastor of the Kimball Avenue Church wants to spread to the greater Logan Square community with the completion of a labyrinth outside on the plot of land where the physical church building once stood.
The centerpiece of the church's urban oasis along Kimball Avenue, the winding labyrinth outlined with bricks and rocks, opened this week.
"You leave all of the business and hectic-ness of life and you just be," said Bruce Ray, the church's pastor.
There was once a church on the plot of land at 2324 N. Kimball Ave., for a long time actually. But in 2011 a boiler ruptured and ruined the then-110-year-old structure.
The congregation took the former church apart piece-by-piece and in its place a new form of church has grown.
The urban oasis started with a few planter boxes and has expanded to a 33-plot garden and meditation area with a fountain and places to sit and reflect.
The labyrinth was the final piece of the puzzle.
The church ran a crowdfunding campaign that raised $5,205 that helped pay for more than half of the $9,000 reflective maze.
The labyrinth was constructed with hard materials to make it accessible to the disabled.
The congregation has not decided what to put in the middle of the labyrinth yet, but it will likely be a sculpture symbolizing a flame.
Ray said he has already seen community members walking the circuit, which is meant to be a guide for reflection.
"That's the whole idea of it," he said.
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