Grace Church marks darkest of days with the light of candles.

As the sun went down on the darkest day of the year, a group of islanders took a quiet, candlit walk to mark the winter solstice.

Their path wasn’t a trail or road, but a swirling, 42-foot-wide labyrinth constructed of river stones, on a hill near Grace Episcopal Church.

A replica of the ancient labyrinth laid in tile at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Chartres, France, the labyrinth was built by hand on the property two years ago, as a meditation tool and a form of ministry.

“It was a beautiful experience, and it seemed a beautiful way to welcome the solstice after feeling so much darkness and so much longing for light,” said Barbara Berger, a children’s author, at the Tuesday gathering.

“Light equals peace.”

During the busy holiday season, the solstice seemed a fitting time to have the walk, to take time out and ponder the “season of turning from dark to light” Kathie McCarthy said.

The solstice marks the first day of winter, the point at which the days begin getting longer and lighter, and the day when the earth is farthest from the sun.

Walking the swirling pattern is calming, said McCarthy, a Grace parishioner who helped construct the church labyrinth.

“It calms me down and it offers moments of grace,” she said. “It offers another way to the sacred that doesn’t involve words.”

The labyrinth, with its twists and turns, is intended as metaphor for pilgrimage and the walk of life.

Unlike a maze, a labyrinth has a single path in and out, and putting one foot in front of the other will eventually lead to the flower-shaped center.

Tuesday, some walked the circuitous path slowly and carefully, while others stepped lightly and quickly. It was quiet, except for the crunch of the gravel path.

Before getting started, McCarthy encouraged the participants to focus on that sound if their minds started to wander toward plans for dinner and last-minute gifts, instead of on the path ahead.

Travelers on the labyrinth could take in several stunning vistas in the darkened sky, depending on their place on the path.

In one direction there was the brightly lit star illuminating Grace church, with layers of dark woods behind it, and in another, one solitary tree, which served as a backdrop for a flock of honking geese that flew by.

“It’s a chance to be in the present moment, and we just don’t do that enough,” said McCarthy’s mom Marge, who was visiting from Santa Fe, N.M.

Now retired, she and her husband Bob bring portable cloth labyrinths into schools.

In recent years, they have been installed in clinics, hospitals, parks and prisons as a tool for contemplation, relaxation, and prayer.

“I like that there is no dogma, and that by walking it, it seems to bring us together,” Marge McCarthy said, with her husband adding, “I feel as if I am stepping out of ordinary life and into something new.”

The earliest labyrinths are believed to have been created thousands of years ago, possibly as a way of portraying the path of Mercury through one of its solar years as viewed from the Earth.

Variations can be found on pottery, tiles and tablets dating back 4,000 years; other examples include the Native American medicine wheel, Jewish Kabala and Celtic Never Ending Circle.

The Chartres pattern, made famous by the French cathedral, was developed in the Middle Ages and popularized in churches at that time.

The six-petaled flower in the middle is thought to symbolize the Virgin Mary.

Some historians believe the pattern was meant to symbolize that it is through the church that one takes the path to heaven.

Others believe the labyrinths were laid in stone during the Middle Ages when war made it too difficult to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem or Rome.

The revival today is led by the Episcopal priest Lauren Artress of San Francisco, author of “Walking the Sacred Path,” a book detailing her exploration of the labyrinth, its history and use in ministry.

She was instrumental in installing a replica of the Chartres labyrinth in San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral a decade ago, and is the founder of Veriditas, the purpose of which is to “pepper the planet with labyrinths.”

McCarthy said the labyrinth works well for “kinesthetic learners” like herself, who have a hard time sitting still for meditation.

“It is embodied prayer,” she said. “That’s my favorite way of looking at it.”