On Palm Sunday, March 2005, Mary Catherine Bass welcomed guests to her “garden in process” for the dedication of the Paul and Louise Katherine Peterson Bass Sanctuary Garden, 219 E. Carroll St., Magnolia.  It is open to the public the first Sunday of each month from 4-6 p.m. DST and from 3-5 p.m. EST.  Visits may also be arranged for other times by calling 910-289-2401.

The privately owned garden was the first to be dedicated by the Unitarian Universalist Association with an affiliation to its nationwide project, the Seventh Principle Project, now the Ministry for Earth project, encouraging congregational members to covenant to live in relationship with the interconnectedness of all life.  The Rev. Katherine Jesch, minister and director of the then Washington D.C.-based project, dedicated the garden in the memory of its former owners and parents of the current owner, Mary Catherine Bass.

The garden is an effort to demonstrate the relationship of this family and its Celtic, Scots-Irish heritage to place and is open for two hours the first Sunday of each month. Its goal is by its presence to offer a place of  peace,  where healing for individual, family, community, national, and international pain can be made neutral.  This is an interfaith ministry of being with nature, flowers, and natural systems (of which humans and their history are a part), and all are welcome to come in responsible silence to pray regardless of religious affiliation (or no affiliation) or race.  For the owner, it is part of a continuing journey begun by her Scottish and Irish ancestors. 

The house was built in the l880’s by her paternal great-great uncle, Bucknell Barden.  This ownership marks continuous generations of the family living in this place.  During the dedication, Ms. Bass honored her heritage by wearing the Scottish sash of her paternal grandmother, the Murray of Atholl tartan, her grandmother’s acorn earrings ( symbolic of the love the Scottish people have for trees, especially the oak), and a paternal aunt’s engagement gift, an Irish four-leaf clover pin.

Music recorded for the occasion by the owner included favorite piano music, her parents’ favorite hymns and songs –  including “I  Come to the Garden Alone,”  “My Wild Irish Rose,” “Sweet Hour of Prayer,” songs from world religions, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” and ended with one of her favorites, “This Is My Song” – a song of peace for all.

The entrance to the garden welcomed visitors in Gaelic.  The altar-center, where roses were placed and the picture of the couple for whom the garden was dedicated, held the chalice, lighted to honor the family, the place, and offer gratitude to the universe for the occasion as well as ask for blessing.  Beside a white geranium was a plant grown by Louise Bass for the front porch since the l960s, and a large arrangement of Bells of Ireland softened the stone bench on which they were placed.

The service ended with communion – Irish soda bread wrapped in linen offered to the guests with the non-alcoholic white wine from Duplin, served from a covered table on which sat an arrangement of grain from the last grown by her father.  Communion was followed by an invitation to walk the labyrinth, recently added to the garden to facilitate spiritual meditation.   Ms. Eloise Eller from Wilmington played a Celtic lap harp, known as an Angel Harp, blessing the guests with beautiful sounds of healing.