STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
Encounter Christ in song and prayer—that’s the promise of the Wednesday night TAIZE services that will start up for the winter season tonight.
St. Thomas Episcopal Church will launch the quiet meditative candlelight services for the 2019-20 winter season at 5:30 tonight—Wednesday, Dec. 4.
Others will follow on Dec. 11 and 18; Jan. 8, 15, 22, and 29, and Feb. 12 and 19.
The church is located at 201 Sun Valley Road.
This year’s TAIZE services come with a new option—an opportunity to walk The Labyrinth at St. Thomas beginning at 4:30 p.m. The Labyrinth, located on the patio to the right of the church entrance, will be lit.
The half-hour TAIZE services open to everyone involve chant, spoken prayer and silent meditation. The hope is that the mind will be quieted and the heart opened through singing simple chants.
“Often, God’s voice comes in a whisper in a breath of silence,” said Brother Roger, who was 25 years old when he started TAIZE in the 1940s. “Remaining in silence in God’s presence, open to the Spirit, is already prayer.”
Brother Roger began TAIZE in a French town of that name that sits amidst the rolling hills of France’s Burgundy region. He had been helping refugees just prior to World War II and saw the need to do something to heal the divisions between Christians of different persuasions and among people from different nations.
We can limit ourselves if we remain isolated in one particular denomination, he taught. To experience our spiritual self fully, we need to be enriched by the diversity of Christian expression.
Today the TAIZE community is made up of more than 100 brothers from Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox backgrounds from 25 countries. They sustain themselves with arts, crafts, farming and book printing. Many serve in areas of great need, such as Calcutta, Nairobi and the Hell’s Kitchen area of New York City.
Each year thousands of young adults from every continent go to Taize to pray and prepare themselves to work for peace and reconciliation. Often, as many as 10,000 people take part in Easter observances.