Calvary Episcopal Church, Rochester, Minnesota

Parish Life at Calvary

Service Activities

Spiritual Oasis Garden

Although Calvary has served Rochester and the world since the parish’s founding, the specific notion of an "oasis" for all people began in 1986. At that time, Calvary's southeastern lawn was entirely enclosed by our memorial garden/columbarum and a thirty-year-old privet hedge. The hedge literally made it impossible for anyone within the church to see out, or anyone outside to see in.

View the Oasis Garden photo gallery. Click the image to start the slideshow; place the cursor on the image to move to the next/previous image.

It was Fr. Nick's idea to enhance this precious green space by removing the hedge and re-planting the area with flowers. Spurred by Dr. William Charboneau, a devoted member of the church who had a real passion for developing this vision, the new garden began to take shape. Sargent's Nursery and Ted Bartell, grounds manager for Mayo Clinic, were engaged to develop a plan that would transform what was a rather barren patch of lawn into a first class "oasis garden." The plan included the present layout, multiple annual and perennial plantings (which the congregation would plant on a Sunday morning in May each year), a musical concert series, and park benches.

"The Oasis Garden" became a fixture for Rochester and its visitors, and solidified the metaphor for our ministry, launching a refreshed approach to our work and God-given presence. This peaceful space is provided deliberately, intentionally, and faithfully as an active space devoted to the healing grace of God.

During the summer months, Calvary hosts weekly lunchtime concerts in the Oasis Garden which have become hugely popular. The concerts feature local artists with music from around the world and instruments ranging from flutes to guitars to bagpipes. When Mayo's Gonda Building was under construction in 2000, workmen were spotted dancing atop the scaffolding to the rock "n" roll music down in Calvary's courtyard.

The rest of the time the garden remains a remarkable spiritual enclosure where flowers, trees, and cool grass provide a sharp contrast to the pace out in the street. When the weather is favorable, Clinic patients, employees, and others who work downtown come into the garden to eat lunch, re-group, or just find some quiet seclusion. When the weather turns cold, there, still visible, still available, in the midst of the plows, the salt and sand, the slush and rush of car and foot traffic, is a place where snow has fallen, “snow on snow,” a hushed reminder of God’s healing presence.