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101 Boston Episcopal--Taizé attracts the youth to the church
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AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
On Halloween, St. Anne’s Episcopal Church in Lowell held a Taizé service. Taizé is a form of contemplative worship that incorporates mystical practices and inter-spiritual beliefs using music, usually in the form of chants, and psalms.
The Taizé Community in France, with 100 members of Roman Catholic and Protestant members from 30 countries, is a monastic order devoted to reconciliation of people of all nations and cultures, using prayer and meditation in any language. It was founded during World War II by Roger Louis Schutz-Marsauche, or Brother Roger, from Switzerland who moved to France, started a monastery, and died in 2005 of a stab wound inflicted by a mentally ill woman during a prayer service. Pilgrimages to Brother Robert’s village church in Burgundy grew each decade from the 1960s, and his church was forced to expand. It soon became too small, and events had to be hosted elsewhere.
The complaint by young people is that often our normal worship contains far too much instruction, edification, and moral exhortation, giving many church members little opportunity for quiet reflection and listening to God through prayer. One form of relaxed prayer is music. Taizé chants are easy to learn and catchy. They consist of short devotional phrases sung repeatedly, sinking into the subconscious and, without much thought, becoming a form of prayer. Like normal prayers, they are often songs of adoration or petition, but sometimes there are verses of psalms mixed in.
There are two ways Taizé can be added to the service—chants and prayer after the normal church service or inserted into the service. To give a normal service a Taizé feel:
- Include the contemplative activities, including a psalm, reading and prayers themed to the lectionary.
- Create a quiet restful atmosphere with lights low but bright enough to read by. Lighted candles are nice.
- Have a focal point—a cross or Icon.
- Use floor cushions or prayer stools. If chairs are required, place them in a semicircle around the focus point. A warm and uncluttered space is conducive to prayer.
A typical service could run like this:
- One or two songs
- A Psalm—said antiphonally or together or even using sung responses
- A Song of Light—where a special candle is lit
- A short reading from Scripture
- Prayer—including the Lord’s Prayer, Prayers of Adoration and Intercession with a sung response
- A Time of Silence—lasting about 8-10 minutes
- Two or three final songs
The Taizé community has concentrated on the young, and the effort has been rewarding—around 70,000 young adults aged 15-29 are welcomed at Taizé each year. In addition to pilgrimages to their site in France, every year between December 28th to January 1st, a meeting in a large European city attracts tens of thousands of young adults. It is organized by the Taizé Community and Sisters of St. Andrew, Catholic nuns from Belgium who now live in Ameugny in Burgundy.
The Taizé Community does not want to create a movement or organization, but wants to send the young pilgrims who attend their meetings back to their local churches to spread the practice of prayer.
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