A Taizé Service

Rev. Bob Schoenhals sent me this guide about the First Sunday service this weekend.

The Music of Taizé
Services at Taizé and those in the pattern of Taizé, now held all over the world, are characterized by simple melodic chants, sung repeatedly as a form of meditation. The act of singing the words over and over serves to clear and relax the mind and spirit and to focus one’s attention on the presence of God. These are interspersed with scripture reading(s), silence and prayer.

About the Taizé Community
Today, the Taizé Community, centered in Taizé, France, is made up of over a hundred brothers, Catholics and from various Protestant backgrounds, coming from around thirty nations. By its very existence, the community is a “parable of community” that wants its life to be a sign of reconciliation between divided Christians and between separated peoples.

The brothers of the community live solely by their work. They do not accept donations. In the same way, they do not accept personal inheritances for themselves; the community gives them to the very poor.

Certain brothers live in some of the disadvantaged places in the world, to be witnesses of peace there, alongside people who are suffering. These small groups of brothers, in Asia, Africa and South America, share the living conditions of the people around them. They strive to be a presence of love among the very poor, street children, prisoners, the dying, and those who are wounded by broken relationships, or who have been abandoned.

Over the years, young adults, both men and women, have been coming to Taizé in ever greater numbers; they come from every continent to take part in weekly meetings and the simple services, drawn by their hunger for deeper experiences of the spirit.
Church leaders also come to Taizé. The community has thus welcomed Pope John Paul II, four Archbishops of Canterbury, Orthodox metropolitans, the fourteen Lutheran bishops of Sweden, and countless pastors and pilgrims from all over the world.