Taizé Community

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Brother Roger of Taizé, 2003

The Taizé Community is an ecumenical Christian men's monastic order in Taizé, Saône-et-Loire, Burgundy, France

1 Community
2 New Year European Meetings
- 2.1 List of host cities
3 External links

[edit] Community

The community was founded in 1940 by Frère Roger (Brother Roger), who remained its Prior until his death on August 16, 2005 and is dedicated to reconciliation. The ecumenical community is made up of more than a hundred men from many nations representing Protestant and Roman Catholic branches of Christianity. Life in the community focuses on prayer and Christian meditation. Young people from all over the world visit Taizé each week to join in the community life.

Prayer in the Church of Reconciliation at Taizé

Taizé has spawned a unique style of worship music that reflects the meditative nature of the community. Taizé music emphasizes simple phrases, usually lines from Psalms or other pieces of Scripture, repeated and sometimes also sung in canon. The repetition is intended to aid meditation and prayer. More about the music and prayer of Taizé can be found on the community's website at [1]

The community, though Western European in origin, seeks to welcome people and traditions from across the globe. This internationalism carries through into the music and prayers where songs are sung in many languages and increasingly include chants and icons from the Eastern Orthodox tradition.

The Taizé community has become an important destination for Christian pilgrimage with many thousand people visiting each year, and groups up to six thousand in one week, especially in summer. The weeklong international youth meetings [2] (for young adults 17-30 years old) are the community's priority.

Small discussion groups

The schedule of a typical day in the youth meetings:

Morning prayer
Breakfast
Large group Bible study led by one of the brothers
Small group discussions
Noon prayer
Lunch
Optional song practice
Practical tasks
Theme workshops
Dinner
Evening prayer

At the heart of Taizé there is a passion for the Church. That is why the community has never wanted to create a “movement” or organisation centred on itself, but rather to send the young back from the youth meetings to their local Church, to their parish, group or community, to undertake, with many others, a “pilgrimage of trust on earth.” In many places across the world, ecumenical prayers using music from Taizé are organised by people, young and old, who have been in touch with the community. These times of prayer are very varied and are integrated in appropriate ways into the life of the local Church. The community's website [3] provides reflections, prayers, songs and news of the “pilgrimage of trust on earth”.

Brother Roger was killed August 16, 2005 when an apparently mentally-disturbed Romanian woman, Luminița Solcan, stabbed him multiple times during evening prayer. The woman was arrested but Brother Roger died shortly after the attack. Brother Alois, a German Roman Catholic, was chosen to succeed Brother Roger. Alois had been selected by Brother Roger eight years earlier.

[edit] New Year European Meetings

The Community also organizes New Year Meetings, which usually take place in a large European city, from 28 December to 1 January. Every year, tens of thousands of young adults take part in these meetings, and they are received by parishes and families of the host city.

The service appeals to those who like deep spiritual prayer and meditation.