What is Taizé?
What is Taizé? Tokyo Union Church and many Christian churches use this name to describe a style of worship, often simply calling it “Taize.” But long before this, Taizé was just the name of a little village in war-torn Eastern France, 160 km west of the Swiss border at Geneva. Taizé is in the beautiful countryside and was not so well known back then.
In 1940 Roger Schütz selected this little French village of Taizé as the home for a new community of peace and reconciliation after years of wartime suffering. He pondered what it would be like to live together in a life according to the scriptures.
Brother Roger’s home became a sanctuary to refugees fleeing the Gestapo who then took over his house in 1942. He was not able to return home until the liberation of France in 1944.
He was a Reformed Protestant but he welcomed all Christians to this new community. In 1949 seven brothers committed themselves to this new monastic community. In 1969 the first Catholic brother, a Belgian doctor, pledged his life to the Taizé community. Over the years it has become a sanctuary for all manner of Christians seeking community and peace. There are over 100 brothers today and it has been a site of pilgrimage for youth since the 1960s. Most come for days or a week at a time.
My dear friend and colleague, who was also my doctoral advisor, is Professor and Dean of the Seminary, Andrew Dreitcer. He spent a whole year living in the Taizé community, immersed in the flow of life there. I admit I am a bit envious. His time there was transformative.
Today, still, thousands of young people come each week from around the world to pray and worship in the chapel of the “Church of Reconciliation” which holds 6,000 worshipers. The music and prayers have come from around the world in various languages, and then from Taizé they then fan out to the far corners of the world.
The lyrics are from scripture, mostly Psalms, and the melodies are simple and easy to sing. There is usually no separate sermon as such, but the whole service is scripture, most of it sung, with a few slightly longer passages read. The music is contemplative and soothing. It is still today, as in the 1940s, a gift of beauty and peace in a war-torn world. At TUC we have been enjoying Taizé style worship for some time now, perhaps once or twice a year, and we want to offer it more regularly now.
We hope you will join us this Sunday, September 19, at 2 pm on Livestream for a time of hearing scripture and song in a beautiful, peaceful way.
Those of us who will lead it are so happy to share and offer this to you as a gift of beauty and peace in these trying times. And we pray that, through out time together in Taizé style worship, that “the Peace of Christ Be with You.”