Worth Abbey Quiet Garden Welcome

Worth Abbey
Quiet Garden

Introduction

Welcome

Welcome

Dear Reader,

I hope you will enjoy reading about the Worth Abbey Quiet Garden in these web pages.

I started work on the garden a few years back, hacking through head-high brambles and nettles, just for a bit of fresh air and exercise. The historical significance of rediscovering the Victorian garden as set out by Robert Whitehead and Viscount Cowdray, previous owners of the estate, was quite exciting in itself.

I always had a hope that the result of the efforts would be of benefit to others, not just as a pleasant and accessible restored garden but also with some spiritual significance that I hadn't then envisaged. As a Benedictine monk, I closely associate 'manual labour' with an essential part of the spiritual life as envisaged by St. Benedict 1500 years ago in his 'Little Rule for Beginners' (See RB Chapter 48).

The Quiet Garden Movement was brought to my attention and I was delighted to find that a lot of interest and enthusiasm was being lavished on gardens throughout the world with just this spiritual use of gardens in mind. Our own Centre for Spirituality began to make use of the Garden for prayer and meditation, so I was encouraged to make it known to parishioners, local residents and supporters and, through the Press, to a wider population. I have been much encouraged by the enthusiasm shown by so many people encountering the garden both for the first and often repeated times.

There being a close association between gardens and flowers - particularly flowers used to decorate our large and impressive church - Worth Abbey held a festival of flowers, 2001: a floral odyssey, from 1st to 3rd June 2001.

Meanwhile please browse around this site and come to visit - and pray in - the Worth Abbey Quiet Garden, and -perhaps - offer some form of support.

Fr Patrick Fludder

Jesus said to them, "Come away with me. Let us go alone to a quiet place and rest for a while." (Mark 6:31)

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