Mansfield Friends open 1647 Garden of Reflection

Friends in Mansfield open a place of contemplation for Quakers and visitors

Friends in Mansfield have developed their beautiful walled garden into a place of contemplation for Quakers and visitors.  George Fox experienced his first ‘opening’ in Mansfield in 1647 and the garden has been named, in celebration of that event, the ‘1647 Garden of Reflection’.

Fox wrote, in his journal, of the experience: ‘Tears of joy dropped from me, so that I could have wept night and day with tears of joy to the Lord, in humility and brokenness of heart.’ The experience inspired Fox to become a servant of God and to create the Children of Light, which evolved into the Religious Society of Friends.

Local Quakers considered how they could enhance their Meeting house and surrounding environment, reach out to the local community and use it as a place of rest and spiritual refreshment.

Mansfield Friends write: ‘In this busy, twenty-first century, the 1647 Garden of Reflection offers emptiness, stillness, tranquillity, reserve, silence and non-action.’

The garden also honours the life and work of Elizabeth Hooton, a mentor and colleague of George Fox, who lived locally in Skegby. It was whilst visiting Elizabeth’s house that George first encountered silent Meetings for Worship.

Friends are invited to the opening of the garden, on the afternoon of Sunday 8 June, by Juliet Prager, deputy recording clerk, Britain Yearly Meeting.

Full photo caption: ‘Reflections’, a sculpture in the garden at Mansfield Meeting House, has a base in quarters of shiny stainless steel topped with four photo-etched, multilayered ‘filigree’ wings with both a positive and negative female form in the centre. It is the result of a collaboration between award-winning metalsmith, Alison Counsell, who works in photo-etched stainless steel and sculptor, Vivien Whitaker, who directly carves the last of the English alabaster.

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