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Content about Communaute de Taize

March 1, 2009

The Approach to God

Call to Worship
Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
Amen.

Opening Song of Praise
“Laudate Dominum/Sing, Praise and Bless the Lord” SNC 30, S&P 35, T 12

God’s Greeting

Sung Response
“In the Lord I’ll Be Ever Thankful” SNC 220, S&P 47, T 10, WR 448

March 2, 2002

Several Chicago-area teens came to the youth pastor, wondering if they could try a new kind of worship a few of them had experienced. It was quiet and beautiful, they said, and it calmed their spirits. We’re so busy all the time, they said. Maybe instead of all the hype and fun in our youth group, we could try Taizé.

March 2, 2002

Brother Émile (last names are not used in Taizé) is a French Canadian from northern Ontario. We met under an awning in the garden at Taizé during a hot July day. Little groups clustered nearby. In a place that avoids titles and roles, Brother Émile does a number of things, including Bible studies with the young adults who come to Taizé for a week and with the international team of volunteers that stay for a year.

March 2, 2002

Every Thursday afternoon just before 4:30, students, faculty, staff, and community people start moving toward the chapel at Calvin Theological Seminary for a time of prayer together. These contemplative services in the manner of the Community of Taizé, planned and led by students, have become for many an important mid-week Sabbath rest that provides, as one person said, a welcome time of “beauty in simplicity.”

March 2, 2002

The opening of this article is taken from the Leader’s Edition of Sing! A New Creation (available from Faith Alive Christian Resources; 1-800-333-8300; www.FaithAliveResources.org). Others contributed to the notes on the three Taizé songs, which are also taken from that edition.

December 1, 2000

Anyone who has been to the Church of Reconciliation in the small French village of Taizé and worshiped there with Christians from all over the world, knows what an unforgettable experience it is. But translating extraordinary worship experiences to our own communities and congregations is notoriously difficult.

December 1, 1997
Note from the Pastor

We held our first Taize service on Good Friday in 1993. The idea came from my experience in Quincy, Washington, where the local Presbyterian Church hosted a community Taize service every year on the Friday before Good Friday. To prepare our congregation, we explained the concept to the elders, and after their approval placed an announcement in the Palm Sunday bulletin:

June 1, 1988

I was on a pilgrimage, it seemed, not fully sure of my destination. An interest in Vincent Van Gogh took my wife and me to the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. On our way to Aries, in southern France, we drove to the ecumenical community of Taize to spend the weekend.