Fr. Paul Edwards sent me an article describing a way of walking the Half Chartres pattern using church pews. He kindly gave me permission to put it on my website. Here is his article, followed by my commentary.
My comments: As Fr. Paul points out, doing the Half Chartres pattern twice gives you about 80% of the complete Chartres pattern. (80% matches exactly. Another 11% is very close, so his scheme approximates 91% of the Chartres pattern. You can see a more detailed explanation of the relationship between the Half Chartres and Full Chartres patterns here on my "Labyrinths you can do anywhere" page, where I describe Fr. Paul's method for memorizing the Chartres labyrinth.)
Fr. Paul suggests using yellow caution tape to mark the pathway among the pews. I like that idea, but I think thick yarn or string or soft rope might be more aesthetic. As he points out in his Walking the Virtual Chartres Labyrinth treatise, it is not difficult to memorize this pattern, so he also suggests having a leader memorize the pattern among the church pews, and lead a line of people through it.
You will notice that he has marked the center in his diagram with a cross. I think it would help to have a physical object placed there, perhaps a large cross or a small altar table, or maybe a small rug where people could stand.
I think Fr. Paul's idea is a wonderful one. Many churches don't have the space or money to have a large labyrinth, but most churches have two banks of pews separated by an inner aisle in their sanctuaries. That existing space can be used as a labyrinth. It occurs to me that most national parks have an outdoor amphitheater with rows of benches that could be used in the same way, for a beautiful outdoor labyrinth experience. Here are two photos of the amphitheater in Moraine Park in Rocky Mountain National Park, where I use Fr. Paul's method to walk a labyrinth:
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