This notice has been republished to allow a little more time for review by congregation members who missed the first notice.
Please review the proposed designs and vote for your favourite
This notice explains where the idea for a new peace garden in the west end of the church grounds has come from. Please have a look at the proposed designs and let us know your favourite by sending a message to the church email address stmaryscardenplace@gmail.com.
Recovery & Renewal Fund
In May of this year the Standing Committee of the Scottish Episcopal Church announced a “Recovery and Renewal Fund”. The aim of the fund is to support the ministry and mission of Charges as they recover from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and to provide resources to help with suitable initiatives. All Episcopal churches could apply for a grant of up to £5,000 towards recovery and renewal initiatives. To apply Vestries had to put together a clear plan and accompanying budget.
Applications were required to relate to one of the following categories:
- Recovery and renewal of ‘pre-pandemic’ ministry
- Online presence post pandemic
- Social action and community development post-pandemic
- Care for clergy and other church leaders
Our application and award
With full and careful consultation across the congregation Fr Terry and the Vestry made an application to the Provincial Recovery and Renewal Fund under the “Social action and community development post-pandemic” category. Our application sought support to create a “Peace Garden” to the west end and at the front of St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral. This garden would comprise of a low maintenance fully landscaped garden using high quality sandstone paving and a raised bed placed appropriately to create a sense of tranquillity and peace. It is intended that the colour of the paving would be in keeping with the unique design of St Mary’s stonework – which gives the church its affectionate other name “The Tartan Kirkie”. We also intend the garden to incorporate paving designs which are clearly linked to St Mary’s own design characteristics.
The Recovery and Renewal Fund was very popular and was very much oversubscribed. Very fortunately, the application from St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral was successful and we received a full award of £5,000.
West End Peace Garden Designs
During the application process Fr Terry and the Buildings Committee sought conceptual advice from our architect and a landscape gardener, recommended by Dave Chouman, Ms Susan Burgess. This advice was very helpful in the development of our application, the budget, and the design concepts. To support our application, we sought help from Stuart Smith of Alt Ten Interactive to create some landscape designs which would fit our criteria. The designs are displayed below for your review and feedback on your preferred design.
Successful applications are required to provide a report on the progress with their supported recovery and renewal initiatives by March 2022. It is understood that projects may still be in planning and implementation phase rather than fully completed by that time.
Fr Terry and Vestry would like to receive feedback from the St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral congregation on your favourite design by the end of January 2022. This will then provide input for our report to the Diocese and Province.
Feedback can be made by email using the St Mary’s email address: stmaryscardenplace@gmail.com or by passing a note to Fr Terry or anyone on the Vestry. Mrs Freddie Stephens has offered to collate the feedback for the Vestry.
Which design do you like the best?
The designs below show a plan view of the west end garden area and are numbered 1 to 6. Please get in touch and let us know your favourite.






Notes:
- We are planning to keep two of the existing three trees in the garden. Unfortunately, one tree isn’t really in good health and probably needs to be removed. Trees are represented by the large green round images in the designs.
- We may also keep the existing two planters and have them re-planted. These are shown by the small circles with greenery in them.
- Benches are represented as plain rectangles.