This dedication took place at the Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, MN on February 8, 2001
Background:
Last spring when Eva Rogness retired from her position as chaplain, an invitation was extended. It read: “To honor our beloved colleague, Eva Rogness, The Virginia Piper Cancer Institute’s Life Choices in Healing team and the Abbott Northwestern Spiritual Care Department would like to invite all who have known this remarkable woman to contribute to a significant and lasting memorial to her career.
As Eva has walked with so many individuals on their life paths, we believe that an appropriate symbol of her work would be a labyrinth.
In Eva’s name a large, room-sized canvas labyrinth will be purchased and dedicated to the well-being of this community. For years to come, patients, families, staff, friends, and caregivers will be able to walk its pattern…as they move toward centeredness.”
The canvas is here. All that remains is for us to joyfully dedicate it to the well-being of this community.
We who are gathered hold hopes and dreams for this beautiful labyrinth. Take a few moments to silently identify our own desires and prayers for this wonderful healing tool. (Pause.)
I invite you to cup your hands before you. (Show this.) Imagine putting all your desires for this labyrinth in your hand until they are overflowing.
As you open your hands outward, send all the possibilities that you have imagined for this healing tool toward it.
Thank you!
I am going to offer several prayers for this labyrinth. After each, I would invite all of us to respond by repeating the following phrase,
“We dedicate this labyrinth to the well-being of our community.”
If you would like, lift your hands toward the labyrinth as an indication of the blessings we are sending to it.
Leader: Please join me as we dedicate this labyrinth.
Community: “We dedicate this labyrinth to the well-being of our community.”
Leader: May this labyrinth be experienced as a pattern that nurtures health.
Community: “We dedicate this labyrinth to the well-being of our community.”
Leader: May those who arrive with hopelessness find the courage to step over the threshold into the possibility of transformation.
Community: “We dedicate this labyrinth to the well-being of our community.”
Leader: May those who walk seeking wisdom, find it.
Community: “We dedicate this labyrinth to the well-being of our community.”
Leader: May those who travel the labyrinth’s path carrying heavy burdens discover the ability to set them down.
Community: “We dedicate this labyrinth to the well-being of our community.”
Leader: May the center be a place where those who are exhausted find rest, where those who are grieving receive comfort, and where those who are dejected encounter unexpected joy.
Community: “We dedicate this labyrinth to the well-being of our community.”
Leader: May those discovering new perspectives here, find the courage to act on them.
Community: “We dedicate this labyrinth to the well-being of our community.”
Leader: May all who experience the labyrinth discover Divine Love as their companion.
Community: “We dedicate this labyrinth to the well-being of our community.”
Leader: May it be so! Amen.