LITTLE ROCK — The silence when entering the Arkansas House of Prayer on the grounds of St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Little Rock is all encompassing. Only the muffled chirp of birds outside or an occasional plane soaring high overhead can be heard.
The quiet is absolute because the House of Prayer has a rule of silence. That means no talking, no cell phones, no music - just silence. Visitors enter in silence and either remove their shoes or put on shoe covers before opening the door to the circular prayer room. Natural light filters in from windows in the conical ceiling, as well as through a skylight in the center. The center of the room features a circle of stone filled with earth. Cushions surround the circle and chairs line the walls.
For some, the transition from the noise of the outside world to the utter silence of the meditation room is jarring.
“We don’t live in a quiet world,” said the Rev. Mary Vano, rector of St. Margaret’s. “It’s against the grain of what we’ve been taught.”
Surrounded by five wooded acres, the Arkansas House of Prayer seems far away from the city, but it’s just off Chenal Parkway and only minutes away from busy Cantrell Road. A joint ministry of St. Margaret’s and the Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas, it’s an interfaith place of prayer.
“People come from everywhere,” Vano said. “We have Muslims who are regulars, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews and Christians. We are seeing lots of people from evangelical churches and a lot of local clergy of all faiths.”
The meditation room has no religious objects, no symbols of faith except for a small cupboard for holding the consecrated bread and wine of Communion tucked away in a cubicle off the main room. The building is designed to be welcoming to people of all faiths, and to those who claim no faith tradition.
The House of Prayer was inspired by the Rev. Susan Sims-Smith, a priest in the diocese, after seeing a circular prayer room in a magazine years ago. She tore out the page.
“I said to my husband, ‘If somebody could go into a room like this they would be able to meditate more easily,’” she said.
Sims-Smith has been meditating and practicing centering prayer since the late 1970s. Centering prayer is a form of contemplative prayer that emphasizes inner silence.
“The human brain is busy and it makes lists, sets projects, has anxieties,” she said. “In meditation you connect not only with a calm, nonanxious place but with a wisdom that’s deeper than our everyday planning capacity. It’s not unlike a place that we connect with in dreams.” What she saw in that small, circular room was a space designed for stillness and silence - a place that would make it easier to quiet the mind and meditate or pray. She shared her ideas for building a similar space with friends and colleagues and tracked down the Minnesota architect of the room featured in the magazine.
A steering committee was formed to explore options, and the group invited input from the community. They crafted a mission statement identifying the space as a house of prayer for all faiths, began raising money and had enough left over from the $1.3 million project for an endowment to support the facility. The building opened in December 2007. Sims-Smith said it was truly a community effort, and she credits the steering committee and donors with making the Arkansas House of Prayer, which celebrated its fifth year in December, a reality.
The House of Prayer is accessible 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Friday by visiting the church office at St. Margaret’s for a visitor’s key. On weekends, visitors are greeted at the House of Prayer by volunteers from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Regular visitors can apply for a key fob, which allows them to enter the building 24 hours a day.
Sims-Smith said she visits the prayer center a couple of times a month as a way to deepen her quiet time.
“It places me in a place of great stillness and beauty and connects me to others on the journey who are coming there to pray,” she said. “It also gives an opportunity for God to show up for me in the quiet in new and surprising ways ... to give me guidance, comfort, love and peace.”
Sims-Smith said the simplicity of the main room and the absolute silence make the House of Prayer a welcoming place for those seeking a quiet place to pray.
“There’s a comfort in knowing that even if somebody comes in, nobody is going to talk,” she said.
Even the outdoor setting helps create the sense of a space set apart from the hustle and bustle of the city.
“I think leaving your car and walking down the path through the woods ... you are leaving your everyday life,” Sims-Smith said. “You turn off your phone and that starts it. It’s the beginning of the prayer or meditation process. You are setting your intention to move away from everyday life for a few minutes.”
Vano said she also visits the House of Prayer to find a place of silence for prayer.
“I can go there and be in a place that is totally still,” she said. “Unlike my home where I do most of my praying, I don’t have any responsibilities at the House of Prayer. I don’t have to run the vacuum and there’s no laundry. It’s totally peaceful.”
Vano said about 100 visitors a month stop by the House of Prayer and she hopes more people find out about it.
“It’s exciting to see people using the space,” she said. “The aesthetics lay a foundation for a peaceful place and I believe that holy space is created by holy people, that when people come and go there is a cumulative effect and you can feel the holiness of a place used day in and day out exclusively for prayer.”
Diane Hobson, a member of the Arkansas House of Prayer board of directors, said the building includes the circular prayer room and three cubicles for even more solitude, as well as a small library. The building also has an outdoor courtyard with chairs and a water fountain. She said volunteers take care of the landscaping.
Hobson said she finds the silence of the building appealing.
“I have always loved quiet,” Hobson said. “I walk in there and I can feel the presence of God.”
That’s a view shared by others who have visited, judging by their comments, Sims-Smith said.
“If someone has lost a family member they find comfort there. If they are running around too hard and fast, they find rest. If they are being critical of themselves they might find grace and love and forgiveness,” she said. “What happens in the silence is that God shows up and responds to the unique part of life we are living and the hungers that we have at that point in time.”
The Arkansas House of Prayer is at 20900 Chenal Parkway. Information is available at arkansashouseofprayer.org or by calling (501) 821-7773.
Religion, Pages 12 on 02/09/2013