IBy Rev. Carolyn Roper-Fowlkes, former Associate Ecumenical Officer
"Bless the Lord, my soul, And Bless God’s Holy name. Bless the Lord my soul, Who leads me into life."
Taizé. What is Taizé? Music? A worship service? A tiny village in France? Taizé is these things and much more. I first learned of the Taizé style of worship from the Uniting Campus Ministry of Texas Christian University in 1997. I was in seminary at Brite Divinity School and my boyfriend invited me to come to a Taizé service. A sizable group of students were crammed into the faculty dining room where we had a piano, song sheets and some candles. I liked the music and the serenity of the prayer. I thought it would be exciting to visit Taizé, but didn’t think it would ever really happen.
Four years later, I am again involved in ecumenical ministries and my husband (the former UCM staffer) shows me a flier from the Kentucky Region about a pilgrimage to Taizé. I show it to my new colleague, Robert Welsh, and he says I must go. I didn’t argue.
I became a pilgrim. Pilgrims travel to places of sacred significance to experience the divine in that holy place. Pilgrimage sites of past have been recognized usually for some miraculous occurrence, association with prophets, saints, or the death of a martyr. In more modern usage, pilgrimage sites have come to include places more loosely defined as sacred or divinely significant; places where one expects to encounter God. But pilgrimage isn’t just about the destination; it’s about the journey. Like walking a labyrinth is not about what happens in the center, it’s about the entire process of moving to the center and back out again.
So thirteen of us turned up at Cincinnati airport on the first of June and our pilgrim paths joined. We were excited about experiencing something new. Only our leader, Guy McCombs, had been to Taizé before. We arrived at Taizé on Pentecost Sunday. The majority of our fellow international pilgrims would not arrive until Monday, though the usual “meeting” runs Sunday to Sunday.
Quickly we were taken into the life of the community. The young adults of the group were given options as to how we would spend our week. We could concentrate on Bible study and discussion in small groups, or we could work a job and have a shorter time of study and discussion. Most of us chose the work and study route, which involved the usual chores of clean-up (all kinds), cooking, welcoming and generally helping life go on.
Our study groups met once a day and we had a mix of Americans, Germans, a French Canadian, a Swiss, and a Pole. It was difficult at first, because most everything had to be translated for the other members of the group. This greatly limited our ability to bond swiftly, but by the end of the week we were beginning to gel. We also bonded with our work groups; mine tended to have more English speakers who came from Ireland and Germany. It made me mindful of how we are so spoiled to live in the US where 99% of the time or better we can operate in one language.
Then there is the prayer. Three times each day, morning, noon and evening, the bells ring out and call the entire community to prayer. Everything else stops and the focus is on God. To describe the church and the prayer service does not do it justice, but imagine if you can an expandable sanctuary, which this week held 1500-2000 people each time. We are all Christians, whether Roman Catholic, Protestant or Orthodox. Our fellow pilgrims spoke German, French, Italian, English in a variety of accents, Polish, Russian, Swedish and more. The largest nationality represented was German. Scriptures and prayers are read in several of the represented languages, and the songs are sung in the same variety.
It really did seem like Pentecost each time we gathered for prayer because each person heard or sang something in her or his own language. On Monday when we sang, “In the Lord I’ll be Ever Thankful” in German, it was awesome to behold. It was like the scene in “The Sound of Music” when the Von Trapps start to sing “Edelweiss” and the entire crowd joins in. The music is exponentially louder and ever more expressive because it is sung from the heart. It literally brought tears to my eyes and made that song one of my favorites. I’m still singing it in German even though I also know the words in English.
And then there is the silence. Each prayer service includes a time of silence— usually about 5 minutes at the morning and noonday prayer and about 10 minutes at evening prayer. For some, even 5 minutes seemed an eternity of discomfort and uneasiness, especially when accompanied by an eagerness to get to breakfast or lunch. But for me, it never seemed enough. For those who tend towards introversion or contemplativeness it is blessed silence that melts away too quickly like the last of a favorite candy savored in the mouth. It only leaves you wanting more.
In this short space I can only hope to have given you glimpses of the community at Taizé. I can tell you it is not something you can go and see in an hour or a day like a painting or a statue; it is alive and must be experienced to be understood and appreciated. Taizé is not a movement, a style of worship or a new denomination; it is a way of living out the gospel in community. The brothers will tell you that what happens away from Taizé, what we in the US call Taizé worship, is “worship with the songs of Taizé.” What Taizé would have us take home is the reconciliation of all Christians for the unity of the Body of Christ. This mission is a divinely mandated, intentional habit that requires cultivation. Most importantly, it cannot be done alone.
Of my week of prayer and silence, I share these words of Madeleine L’Engle in The Weather of the Heart, Harold Shaw Publishers, Wheaton, IL 1978, p 60.
Word
I, who live by words, am wordless when
I try my words in prayer. All language turns
To Silence. Prayer will take my words and then
Reveal their emptiness. The stilled voice learns
To hold its peace, listen with the heart
To silence that is joy, is adoration.
The self is shattered, all words torn apart
In this strange patterned time of contemplation
That, in time, breaks time, breaks words, breaks me,
And then, in silence, leaves me healed and mended.
I leave, returned for language, for I see
Through words, even when all words are ended.
I, who live by words, am wordless when
I turn me to the Word to pray.Amen