Covenant Seminary Dedicates New Garden of Lament and Hope

On March 26, Covenant Seminary held its annual chapel service of lament. The Seminary inaugurated this tradition last year with the purpose of bringing faculty, staff, and students together for a season of lament, grieving the fallenness of this world and the sorrows of life and bringing them to God, who promises to hear and comfort his people.

As a special part of this year’s service, the Seminary dedicated a new installation on campus: the Garden of Lament and Hope. Located between Rayburn Chapel and the J. Oliver Buswell, Jr., Library, the garden is a place for students, faculty, staff, and other visitors to the Covenant Seminary campus to acknowledge the reality of loss, sorrow, and spiritual warfare, to bring laments before the Lord, to remember that he is near to those who call on him, and to look forward to the day when he will reconcile all things to himself. The garden is also meant to remember and lament the many stories of loss that have affected the Seminary throughout its history.

“Seminary does not insulate us from the hardships common to life,” said Dr. Thomas C. Gibbs, President of Covenant Seminary. “Stories of lament and grief are as much a part of life as stories of praise and hope—and God uses all of them to shape his people for the ministries to which he calls them. This garden will be a place of memorial and meditation where anyone in the campus community can come to remember and reflect on the griefs we all share and seek rest in the hope we all claim in Christ.”

At Wednesday’s service, our community was led in prayers of lament by faculty and staff. Dr. Gibbs preached a sermon entitled “Jesus Wept” on the resurrection of Lazarus from John 11:28–44, reminding us that we have a Savior who joins us in our sorrows, but who will also one day make all things new. Attendees processed outside, where Dr. Gibbs dedicated the garden to the glory of God before offering the benediction.

More details about the garden will be made available in the coming months. As we bring our grief to the Lord, we are thankful for this place on our campus that will remind us of his never-failing compassion.

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!
O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleas for mercy!

Psalm 130:1–2