TAIZÉ

Riga 2016

The meeting seen by the participants

 

Panoramic view from the common prayer in the Lutheran Cathedral Dom of Riga during the Taizé European Meeting. Photo by Pozsgay Benedek also published on Facebook.

A few echoes of the preparation

Xavier (India)

I came to Latvia five months ago, just after my high school. I am studying Bachelor in Aviation Engineering in Riga Technical University. On my second month, when I was usually going to the church for the holy mass, I met the volunteers from Taizé. As soon as they told me about Taizé and just after taking part in the prayer, I took a decision to help prepare the meeting. So, whenever I was free from lectures, I ran to the preparation centre to help them, as much as I could. And now, after attending the meeting, I am feeling really proud and happy.

Mikaela (Sweden)

My journey started in the village of Taizé as a volunteer in the end of last summer. When I came home, full of the new experience, there were quite a few things that I couldn’t hold onto in everyday life. So I just knew that I wanted to go to Riga to get even more strength for my life! I live nearby the harbour in Stockholm, and every day I can see ferries coming from the sea. It was exciting and fun to travel to Riga by boat. Here we met some other pilgrims and volunteers. So the boat even became our small temporary “Taize meeting place” on the way to Riga.

Matĕj (Czech Republic)

Matĕj arrived in Riga in the beginning of December to help with the last phase of the preparation. “Two years ago I welcomed the pilgrims of the European Meeting in our Evangelical Brethren Church in Prague. As we knew very little about Taizé, we had to collaborate with a nearby Catholic parish. Before the Meeting we had hardly contact with them, but welcoming together the pilgrims from other countries brought our two churches closer. Two years after the meeting we still do things together from time to time.”


The travel to Riga

Eduardo (Portugal)

Among the young people who made the longest journey, two Portuguese have sent some news and pictures of their three days’ bus journey. We set out from Algarve, Portugal, to participate in the Riga meeting. We left on Dec. 25 in the early morning, ready for a long bus ride. After crossing Spain during the night, we were already in France for breakfast on the morning of the 26th! Then we continued our journey through France and then Germany. We visited the city of Berlin, then resumed our journey via Poland and Lithuania. And on the afternoon of the 28th, we finally arrived in Riga.

Yulia (Ukraine)

Volunteer in Taizé for 9 months, originally from Donbass, Yulia came to Riga from Ukraine. With our group of 62 people, we celebrated Christmas in Vilnius in Lithuania in a Greco-Catholic church. They invited us to celebrate the Nativity with them. For our group, it was a great experience before immersing ourselves in the European meeting.

Edgar (Guatemala)

Edgar came to Riga by bus with the volunteers from Taizé, after 36 hours of travel. When I heard about the trip to Riga for the first time, I was afraid - such a long journey! But then, during the travel, I started to like it. Especially the prayers, the movies and meals, the things we shared together with brothers. Everybody tried to keep their spirits up during the exhausting trip.


The morning programme in the host parishes

Mira (Germany)

One morning, some of the small groups in our parish outside of Riga were invited to a day center for people with disabilities. When we got there we were warmly welcomed by everyone - the social workers and the people attending the day center. After everybody found a place, one of the social workers told us about the house, the people, the programme and how important Jean Vanier is to them. Our sharing groups had prepared some Christmas carols and some Taizé songs to sing. Singing "Svetita Tauta" with our international group for Latvians felt so special in that moment. Very soon many of the people of the day center joined in, one woman even had tears in her eyes. For me, it was one of the best experiences during the meeting.

Tanya (Ukraine)

Our local parish was very welcoming. The animator of my sharing group, from Croatia, managed to rekindle conversations, to help the participants to speak up, no matter our differences. We noticed that we did have a lot in common. Thus, that kind of cross-cultural interconnection was of great importance for us.


Panoramic view by Bence Pozsgay originally published on Facebook.

The common prayers

Tera (Belarus)

Arriving at Riga as a volunteer on 26 December, I was looking forward to when the prayers would begin. The first prayer which I attended was held in Kipsala. In front of me was the Image of the Mother of God; the chants, the warm atmosphere filled with prayer. I had the feeling that the soul was touching a source of living water.

Katrin (Germany)

When I saw by chance that the common prayer was being broadcast from Riga via “Facebook Live”, I stopped everything and kept singing and praying with all of you. While doing so I wrote to a friend of mine from Portugal and he responded directly – we decided to sing together.... I was so happy to know one friend in person who was with me the same way. Often in Taize I thought about how much technology is keeping me away from the things which are actually important in my life. But at the moment I am just so happy to be connected with you in this way.


The afternoon workshops

Marta (Slovenia)

For me as a chemist, the workshop about quantum physics was very interesting and satisfying. I enjoyed listening to his view about science and also about religion. The crucial moment was when he explained how in life nowadays we can see the Light of creation, we can see it as a waving noise, as a part of the first light in the Universe. Especially I was impressed by the thought at the discussion about ethics and science that God doesnt want to hide anything from us, but that it is important what we do with the discoveries and in what way we discover them.

Patrick (England)

In the National Library of Latvia, a workshop took place on the theme “Europe today: what can we do for the unity of the continent?” Patrick shared his feedback.

I am mainly here to hear the opinions of other EU-countries on the immigration and refugee issue. Hopefully, some ideas will be shared of how we can better help EU-countries to work together for the common good. I am concerned, because after Brexit we will not be part of a team anymore - that is what the EU is to me, a team. In my opinion, we are required by faith to actively assist other people. We have the obligation to help, to work for equality. I really hope for a better 2017.

Panoramic view taken by Benedek Pozsgay during the workshop about the feast of Hannukah with the Jewish community of Riga.


The hospitality of a whole city

Janis Vanags, Lutheran Archbishop of Riga, and his wife Baiba

In cooperation with the Anglican parish we welcomed six young people from Poland and one from Sweden. We developed very good cooperation with the parish. All of our guests were wonderful young people - that is our experience. We celebrated the New Year in the tower of the Riga Dome cathedral. We hope that the young people will remember Riga as a place they would like to revisit. We organized lunch on the 1st of January together with our neighbours who also welcomed two pilgrims. Thanks to Taizé we had a reason to work together and become friends with our neighbours. We set the table at our home and together shared a meal of friendship and thanksgiving.

Praise (India), Ace and Jay Mark (Philippines)

Today in our host family, we went to drink some tea and coffee with our host Digna (Latvian) and her friend Irina (Ukrainian). After a little small talk, Irina, in her curiosity, wanted to hear us speaking in our respective mother languages. Instead of just talking about random things, we decided to answer a sensible question using our local tongues. The question was: “When did your faith experience start?” Words that were totally foreign to each of us came out freely in the air. Surprisingly, even though we weren’t really able to understand each other, it sounded like a normal conversation where one understands what the other is saying.

Valentina (Switzerland)

With two other girls from my group from Tessin, I was hosted in a family with two children. They were all very polite with us. Our “father” told us much about the history, the war, but also about the Latvian culture – it was really interesting. I think that the advantage to be in a host family is that you can have a direct contact with the culture. And of course it was also a sharing : for example I cooked a traditional cake from Switzerland and I taught them to play some card games. We really had a good time with the family.

Jonathan (France)

Riga was my first Taizé European meeting. Before the journey, I was a little worried about living for a week with strangers, who have been so generous as to welcome us but whom we do not know. And yet, the week in the host family in Riga was wonderful. There were three of us staying with three young women who live in a shared flat. From the very first day, we began to discuss over a cup of tea, all kinds of topics and especially about life in Latvia, our job, our activities, our beliefs ... As the days went by, the exchanges lasted ever later in the evening and became more natural. Finally, a real bond of friendship was created. We danced together at the Feast of Peoples for the start of the New Year, it was wonderful. And on the day we left, our hosts prepared a delicious traditional dinner with a chocolate cake that will long remain in our memories.

Ana, Jelena, Martina and Ivana (Croatia)

After two long days of travelling we finally came to Riga. We were placed in the parish of St.Gertrude’s Old church. A few hours later we finally got to meet our amazing host family, young parents with two little boys. They hosted us with generosity. They didn’t only give us a place to sleep, they gave us a home. We felt welcomed and loved. Every night after the prayer and lunch distribution we would go back to our host family where we were talking with the parents and playing with the boys. Although the boys spoke only Latvian so we couldn’t comunicate that way, we understood each other perfectly through songs and games. The hospitality of our host family in Riga was great and we will always be grateful for it.

Francesca (Italy)

On December 29th, 2016 at 7am I woke up on the sofa of a young family in Salaspils – a suburb of Rīga – when their 4-year-old son Ernest came to sit at his place to watch some cartoons before going to kindergarten, as he is used to do every day. The evening before, we had arrived very late and could not meet him, but only his parents. But, that morning, under his blue pillow with butterflies, he actually found my feet! Probably, he was too sleepy to see me lying on the couch! I slowly put my face out of the duvet, so not to scare him, and well aware that we had no shared language to communicate. While I was expecting him to be scared and cry, to the stranger invading his house he answered back with a huge smile and crawling over my legs to come and hug me. This is my dream for Europe, for the world : my dream of trust and welcome.

Panoramic view taken during the common prayer at Arena Riga.