Picture from a recent Taize' prayer service at the Dominican Sisters' convent in Great Bend, KS.
The Taizé community is an
ecumenical monastic order with a strong devotion to peace and justice through prayer and meditation. The 100-strong community of Roman Catholic and Protestant monks is drawn from 30 countries across the world.
It was founded in 1940 by Roger Louis Schutz-Marsauche (known as 'Brother Roger'). The 90-year-old monk died in August 2005 after being stabbed during a prayer service.
Today Taizé is one of the world's most important sites of Christian pilgrimage. Each year tens of thousands of young pilgrims flock to the small village of Taizé in central France to share in the community's way of life.
Prayer and silence are at the heart of the Taizé experience. Young people from every corner of the globe are encouraged to live out the Christian gospel in a spirit of joy, simplicity and reconciliation.
Ecumenism (a movement promoting Christian unity among Churches) is the key to Taizé's appeal, making it a magnet for people of many different cultures and traditions.
Taizé has spawned a unique style of worship that has become popular in churches, retreat centres and seminaries throughout the world.
The singing of distinctive and much-repeated prayer chants during candlelit prayer services is one of its trademarks. Taizé music highlights simple phrases, usually lines from the Psalms or other pieces of scripture, repeated or sung in canon. The repetition is designed to help meditation and prayer.
- BBC - Religions - Christianity: Taizé
