About Taizé
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During Advent and Lent, we at Mount Carmel Congregational Church traditionally hold a special Taizé worship series to help us focus on the theme of each liturgical season. These services, based off those held at the Taizé monastery in the Burgundy region of southern France, will be conducted on Wednesday evenings leading up to Easter. Taizé services are held by candlelight and involve a mixture of song, chanted prayer, and long durations of silence. By utilizing repeated phrases from scripture as a focus for meditation, the services of Taizé provide “the freedom and space to hear God’s voice” (Youngman 5). The combination of these important factors leads to a unique worship experience far removed from the usual Sunday morning gathering.
Since 1940, the spirit of Taizé and its founder, Brother Roger Louis Schutz-Marsauche, has attracted the attention of Christians from across the world to cast aside their differences and gather in worship as one united Christian Church. In Taizé worship, we are no longer Catholics, Protestants, Baptists, or Orthodox; instead, we are simply people “seeking the space---external and internal---in which to meet God” (Youngman 5). If you would like to learn more, pick up a copy of Worship Feast: 20 Complete Services in the Spirit of Taizé by Abingdon Press or join us for one of our services, listed on our Events Page. For a brief history of Taizé and its founder, Brother Roger, we suggest that you visit BBC’s web article located here. Youngman, J. (2004). Spirit of Taizé. In Worship Feast: 20 Complete Services in the Spirit of Taizé (pp. 5).
Essay, Abingdon Press. |
