Saturday, May 23, 1998

Finding a quiet place for reflection easy in Abilene

By LORETTA FULTON / Abilene Reporter-News

Silence is golden and as rare as a fine gem.

It is treasured in a modern society with bells, buzzers and beepers sounding nonstop.

It is also a must for spiritual development, as noted in every religious writing from the Bible to current offerings. Roman Catholic priest and author Henri Nouwen notes in Making All Things New that "Without solitude it is virtually impossible to live a spiritual life. Solitude begins with a time and a place for God, and him alone."

But finding that time and place is difficult and even when we find it, we often don't know what to do with it.

Quite contemplation "has kind of been lost in modern Christianity," said the Rev. Clark Williams, pastor of Aldersgate United Methodist Church. "Mystics and the early church members understood quiet and contemplation better than we do."

With that in mind, Williams came up with the slogan on a new coffee house at South 14th and Sayles, designed as a "stealth ministry" by Aldersgate for McMurry University students and the public.

The sign out front features a steaming cup of coffee and the words "Fine Coffee -- Conversation -- Calm."

It's the calm that Williams hopes patrons of the coffee house will cherish.

"It really just kind of grew out of our vision for what we wanted it to be," he said, "a place of peace."

Similarly, when Richard and Dema Lunsford's son was a student at Abilene Christian University some years ago, he commented to his parents that there was no quiet place on campus to sit, pray, and reflect.

"We decided we would provide a place," Dema Lunsford said. So she and her husband, a member of the ACU board of trustees, decided to fund, design, and furnish two "quiet places" on the ACU campus.

The first room was included in the Mabee Business Building, built in 1986. The second is housed in the Biblical Studies Building, constructed in 1989.

"I would wake up in the night and just start drawing what was supposed to be in there," Lunsford said.

A friendship with performer Barbara Mandrell led to one of the most striking features of the Quiet Place in the Biblical Studies Room. Mandrell had sculptor Russ Faxon create a piece titled "I Exalt Thee" for her home. He was supposed to break the mold after that creation, Lunsford said, but he agreed to create a duplicate for the Quiet Room at ACU.

"Those are the only two in existence," Lunsford said.

The statue, with a man on his knees, back arched and arms stretched toward heaven, sits in the midst of a red and black polished granite fountain. The fountain and statue greet visitors to the Quiet Place. The fountain's cascading water provides the only sound that fills the outer room.

Seven smaller rooms in the interior are furnished simply, one with a rocking chair, another with a large wooden cross, and yet another with a soothing stained class insert in the ceiling.

A feature popular with students is the placement of prayer journals in the rooms. Students enter private thoughts, sometimes painful ones, hoping to find peace in the disclosure and perhaps comfort in knowing they are not alone.

Susan Lakey, a freshman from Sherman, discovered the journals while studying in the Quiet Place.

"You see other people are going through the same things you are," she said.

She also found that the Quiet Place provided an excellent place to study for finals.

"It gives you a place to think," she said.

A plaque in the outer room explains that the "rationale behind having an established setting such as the Quiet Place is that on a busy university campus all persons -- students and faculty alike -- need a place for meditation and renewal."

And they have found it there. Lunsford said she occasionally gets letters from people who have benefitted from the solitude found in the Quiet Place.

"They had a moment in their life when that was very, very meaningful," she said.

When the first Quiet Place was built at ACU, Lunsford said the idea was so novel that the architect couldn't grasp the concept until it was finished. The idea of having a special place to sit and contemplate is still foreign to many 1990's Americans, but the art seems to be making a comeback with more "quiet rooms" appearing in unlikely places such as office buildings.

Although the coffee house sponsored by Aldersgate, called "The Corner," isn't designed for total silence like the Quiet Place, it does emphasize quiet and calm.

"It's a place that's away from the noise and the pressure and the hustle," said Williams, minister at Aldersgate.

For the present, the coffee house is only open from 7:30-11:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, but morning and afternoon hours may be added, Williams said.

During the week soft contemporary Christian music plays in the background, and on Saturday night a live band provides the same type music. The Christian music, by design, is the only overt religious message at the coffee house, Williams said.

Mainly it is a respite from a hectic world in which people sometimes stay busy to avoid hearing the small, still voice that comes with silence. That's an unfortunate side effect of living in a fast-paced world, Williams believes.

"We want to Ôbe doing' and we've forgotten how Ôto be,' " he said.