On the National Register of Historic Places, tiny Emmanuel Episcopal Parish sits upon a rocky ledge overlooking Puget Sound on the Pacific northwest island of Orcas. Winds and weather, massaged by the Japanese current, breathe fresh spirit into her 19th century white clapboard sides. In the lull between tides, sea gulls seek repose high on her peaked roof; their avian hymns of prayer and thanksgiving echo through the center of the quaint town of Eastsound.

It is here, atop ancient and sacred Native American soil that parishioners dream of placing a permanent labyrinth. But today, between Marilyn Parman’s notes on the base continuo, a canvas labyrinth, adorned with spring flowers, is laid out and readied for the first World Labyrinth Day Walk. The present joins with the ancient and the sacred in a space where there is no time.