The Faith Garden in Oakwell country park’s arboretum was created as a haven of peace. It’s a place to explore or simply to sit and appreciate the world around you. The faith garden provides a special place, inspired by the world’s major faiths and the natural environment of the park.
The garden incorporates themes of faith such as circles and the points of the compass. It includes a circular stone seating area with a turfed surround. A circle of standing stones represents the points of the compass and a grassy mound gives a different perspective to the circle theme.
It provides an opportunity for quiet reflection and can be used as an outdoor classroom. Children learn about common themes of faith and understanding between different communities and explore their own faith and values.
Building the Faith Garden
The Area Committee for Birstall and Birkenshaw, where Councillor Palfreeman is a ward member, partly funded the garden. “During my year as Mayor, I want to bring different communities together through an appreciation of different faiths and cultures. And there’s no better place than Oakwell Hall, with its beautiful country park, to help achieve that. I’m delighted that my area committee was able to help with the funding. I’m sure the faith garden will become a special place for everyone who visits it,” he said.
The garden also received funding from the Kirklees Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education(SACRE).
The Mayor of Kirklees, Cllr Andrew Palfreeman, officially opened the Faith Garden on Tuesday, June 29 2010. Both invited guests and members of the public attended the opening ceremony. Official guests included Year 3 pupils of Gomersal St. Mary’s First School who piloted the educational package. They spent half a day at Oakwell, where they also walked a ‘faith’ trail. They also visited the North Kirklees Muslim Faith Centre, which is part of Interfaith Kirklees (Schools), Oakwell’s main partner in the project.
While at Oakwell, the children made small tokens such as caterpillars and butterflies from playdough. They put these inside the dry stone wall seating circle, which was nearing completion. During the launch, they asked guests to create their own ‘temporary’ tokens by writing messages and thoughts on rice paper. These were also placed between stones in the wall of the museum’s formal garden, where afternoon tea was served in a marquee after the opening ceremony.
Our faith garden is open to the public so please come along and enjoy a quiet moment.
