AfricaA brother who was in Australia, February 2009, wrote:
“We ache with the victims of the fires in Victoria". This prayer, formulated by the Uniting Church minister who welcomed us for the first evening’s prayer in his Sydney city centre church, accompanied us throughout our pilgrimage. Arriving in Australia and seeing the reactions to the devastation of the country’s worst natural disaster was very moving. The readiness of people to help materially and emotionally those who had lost not only their homes, but often family members as well spoke volumes on the deep-seated goodness in human beings.
In contrast, our prayers seemed so poor, but you could sense the importance of people being able to come together. The prayer around the cross took on new meaning. The celebration of the resurrection renewed hope. It was the little that we could do to show our solidarity with those who are suffering and have lost so much …
In Perth, there were many visits to schools. Like in so many of today’s societies, it’s not easy for young people in Australia to find their way to the church. In each school, we prepared a time of prayer using the music from Taizé, Bible readings and a long moment of silence. Often the students had prepared the music and there were instruments to accompany our singing. Afterwards, it was very beautiful to hear the reactions: "I felt so relaxed", "There were so few words and that helped to focus", "We need silence".
And in the parishes where there were only older people, the question was asked; "How can we welcome others, especially the young, into our communities?" The pilgrimage continues!
Sydney: prayers at Saint James’
At the invitation of Pope Benedict XVI, the World Youth Days took place in Sydney from 15 to 20 July 2008. From Monday 14 July, brothers of the community led prayers with songs from Taizé, in a city centre parish.
For a whole week Sydney’s streets and railway stations echoed to the sounds of animated young people from all the continents of the world. The World Youth Day had attracted a quarter of a million pilgrims who came together to celebrate their faith and their hopes.
Where the massive buildings of the commercial district meet the large park opposite St Mary’s Cathedral is the lovely, warm sand stone church building of the Anglican Church of St James. And it was in this church that people came to join some of the brothers of Taizé in prayer each day. As the week progressed, more and more young people began crowding into the church until by the end of the week not everyone who wanted to get in were able to – even with up to four prayers in an afternoon and evening. A choir and instrumentalists were there throughout the week to help with the singing.
There were always people of different denominations present. Young people read the Scriptures in up to six different languages. They also helped lead the intercessions. On three of the evenings, Brother Alois spoke to the young pilgrims.
At the close of the final evening prayer each day the cross was laid on the floor and people waited patiently in a long line for an opportunity to entrust to Christ some of their anxieties and fears and hopes. At the final prayer, the Prime Minister of Australia who had earlier in the week spoken to the young pilgrims at the opening event, attended with his family, staying for two hours to pray with the young people.
Roads in the central city were blocked off; even the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge was closed for a whole day, causing inconvenience to so many motorists. But the people of Sydney responded generously, going out of their way to offer hospitality to so many visitors. The city was transformed as singing groups, sometimes identified by their national flag, walked from one event to another along the city’s streets.
How much can change, even for a city of over 4 million, when people for a few days are united in communion with each other and the whole church.
On his return from Sydney, Brother Alois spoke to the young adults gathered in Taizé:
With three of our brothers, I was in Australia for the World Youth Days, to which Pope Benedict XVI had invited young people from every continent. At the beginning of last week when we set off to join those gathered in Sydney, we left behind us many young people here on the hill.
As was the case during each of the previous World Youth Days, we were invited to lead prayers each day of the week. In Sydney, it was in the beautiful St James’ Church, at the heart of the city.
At Saint James’, which is Anglican, we discovered a fraternal collaboration with the young adults of the parish. In this way, young people of another denomination were involved in welcoming the young Catholics. For years now, one of our brothers has been going from time to time to this same church to lend support to a prayer with Christians of Sydney. We were happy to find this continuity.
In the evenings, we ended with the prayer around the Cross, and the young people stayed on and on, to sing and to pray. Others were waiting outside, for their turn of praying around the Cross, placed on the ground.
While we were in Sydney, we remembered that Brother Roger died exactly three years ago, during the World Youth Days held in Cologne.
During these days in Australia, Pope Benedict XVI called on the young people to become witnesses to Christ. And here in Taizé, week after week, we also wish to do everything we can, so that those who gather here on our hill find in trusting in Christ a meaning to their life.
February 2008
One of the brothers is a regular visitor to Australia. He is in the country at least once every year. He shares some reflections on his experience through the years.
During my visit to Australia in February it seemed as if the air was filled with gratitude for the apology for past wrongs inflicted on the country’s indigenous people, expressed publicly and clearly by the new prime minister. Many people I met saw this as the fruit of long perseverance. A great many church groups and associations and others had struggled hard so that this would be said some day. For many people, this was a true pilgrimage of trust and the image that will remain with me of these weeks spent in Australia is one of pilgrimage. This could seem not very original, yet each concrete form the “pilgrimage of trust on earth” takes on seems to give it all its topicality.
First of all, there was a pilgrimage from city to city; beginning with the preparation for the World Youth Days in Sydney, and ending up with a weekend meeting in Perth; from one state to another, each state and each city has its own character, almost its own different culture. In between the visits to New South Wales and Western Australia came Tasmania, and there the idea of “pilgrimage” really materialized.
The Tasmanian Council of Churches had suggested a visit to Launceston, and even to several rural localities 25 kms further on from there. We arranged to meet at St Mary’s Anglican Church at Hagley. Obviously, the church was not very large, but it was full and there were many young people, some of them from Hobart. After viewing a short film explaining what is lived in Taizé, everybody set off, some on foot some by car, for Hagley Uniting Church. The people there had prepared a magnificent meal and that gave people an opportunity to get to know each other, with students from Hobart, Penguin and Launceston, Catholic and Anglican priests and Uniting Church ministers…. Then everybody moved on to the Catholic parish in Westbury, the next village. At the beginning of the afternoon, the young people had read and shared what they discovered in the “Letter from Cochabamba”. In the evening at Westbury, the “Letter to those who want to follow Christ” provided an excellent introduction to the evening prayer.
In Melbourne, the pilgrimage began at the Baptist Church, where they had set up part of the buildings as a place for quiet: an afternoon of reflection followed by evening prayer. Then we gathered once again before nine o’clock the next morning at Trinity College Chapel, before classes began, on the campus of Melbourne University. The young people in the choir had worked hard to prepare the songs and their voices filled the space in this magnificent building. At noon, during the lunch break, at Wesley Church in the centre of town, the General Secretary of the Victoria Council of Churches gave an impressive reading of the “Call for the reconciliation of Christians”. At the end of the afternoon, between leaving work and going home, there was evening prayer in St Peter’s Eastern Hills.
The liturgy speaks of the “pilgrim church on earth”, and that was exactly our experience during this visit. In Launceston, one of the prayers took place in a church called “Pilgrim Church”. On the façade of the building there is a plaque that explains why the church is called by this name: God never stops inviting us to set off again; with Christ we are “pilgrims and strangers on the earth”; if the Holy Spirit has lead us to come and pray in this church, he leads us onwards, to continue our way towards others, towards those who are confided to us.
Meetings in July 2007
Ending a visit of almost 3 weeks to Australia, I have realised, once again, that the preparation was important and also had a meaning of its own. In this country, where distances are so great, it was good to hold some meetings in a town centre, enabling people to come after work. Such meetings were held at Uniting Church at Paddington, in Sydney, and at Goodwood Catholic Church in Adelaide. This type of setting is not appropriate everywhere: holding meetings in a suburb makes it possible for other people to come - as at Greystanes, for the Sydney region, or in the smallest and most remote places. That’s why Gosford Anglican was chosen for NSW, and Barossa Valley for SA. In this way, the preparation of visits leads to ‘widening’ – remaining faithful to the words of Brother Roger, spoken a few hours before his death.
Here is another example to explain why the preparation for a meeting can have a meaning all of its own: At Nuriootpa, in the Barossa Valley, several parish groups had asked for what they call a ‘Music Workshop’. Labels such as this always make me anxious, as people seem to expect us to give them a way of doing things. I have, in fact, often had to lead this type of workshop but it’s good to keep renewing one’s ideas. I emailed a brother at Taizé for help in finding new ideas of Bible texts about singing, and a sense of the sacred. By return, he sent me a whole list of Bible references. I printed these out and found them delightful – so I simply read these passages at the workshop and tried to share my delight in them. We spent some beautiful hours, as I was able to talk about the simplicity of preparation and the meaning of repetition. I even told them how, at first, the brothers were not very enthusiastic about repetitive songs and found them boring. However, since almost all the songs use phrases from the Bible, it was realised that the Word of God is stronger than one’s personal feelings; that – as Cardinal Martini told us – our songs are like a “Lectio Divina”. I was able to speak about the beauty of the prayer space; the sense of the sacred; the value of silence; and of the opening and solidarity that prayers of intercession can bring. The participants were from parish choirs and liturgy groups, together with young pastors of the Uniting and Lutheran Churches (Lutherans are quite numerous in the Barossa Valley); the priest of the neighbouring Catholic church; and, of course, Stephen, the young priest of the Anglican church that had welcomed us. The afternoon ended with a beautiful prayer in the church.
One feature of this visit was the days spent in schools at Sydney and Brisbane. I must say that I lived these days as a privilege. I was able to rejoin the young people where they were. This was a privilege, but also a challenge, as the young people had not chosen to take part in these sessions. In Sydney, at Newington School, I sensed straight away that the young people had not really had the choice of whether to come. They belonged to the choir. I felt they were making an effort but that, gradually, the music was touching them. When we had finished and they were leaving, two of them came to me and said: “You know, we were forced to come and we thought it would be very boring, but next time we’ll come as volunteers!”
In Brisbane, there were 3 full days spent in Catholic and Anglican schools. The youngsters varied greatly in age, and their expectations were also more than varied. In some classes there was a theme, such as “Art and spirituality” or “Modern spirituality and rituals”. The latter theme seemed rather grim to me, but, in discussion with some of them, I began to understand that mobile phones, interminable on-line conversations, and music via an MP3 are a form of spirituality, and that young people do have their rites. These were heavily packed days – the midday meal sometimes had a theme. At Padua College I had lunch with young people, who had responsibilities in their classes, and the topic was “Christian leadership”.
On one occasion, I spoke to them about the passage in John’s Gospel where Jesus asks the first disciples: “What are you looking for?” and I quickly asked the young people to respond to this question. Many of them were seeking friendship, love, family… for one or two, it was money. One boy’s response was: “May my life make a difference”. Then one of them asked me: “and you?” I was taken aback….and, in fact, helped – for the question has stayed with me.