Perspectives on Taizé
Several days previously, on the evening of the election of the new patriarch, Brother Alois sent him the following letter:
Taizé, 27 January 2009
Holy Father,
From the bottom of my heart, I want to tell you how much we, the brothers of Taizé, are grateful for your election as patriarch of Moscow and all Russia. We thank God for the good choice made by the Council today. We pray for the ministry of communion that is entrusted to you at the heart of the Holy Russian Orthodox Church, and also for the service of witnessing to the unity of all Christians, which the world so badly needs. I am delighted that I will be able to be present in Moscow with two of my brothers for your enthronement next Sunday.
We remember the deep friendship that our Brother Roger had for you for a long time. You came to Taizé for the first time when you were still young. Later, Brother Roger often spoke of the welcome that you extended to him in Leningrad in 1978, at the time of the venerable Metropolitan Nikodim, when you were rector of the Academy of Theology. Then you returned to Taizé in the spring of 1990. And I myself cannot forget the very warm welcome that you, together with Patriarch Alexis II, gave me when I visited Moscow in June 2006, shortly after beginning my new responsibility as prior of Taizé.
Because of the deep love that our community has for the Orthodox Church and for Russia, we want to continue these relationships and achieve more and more that collaboration to which the Patriarch Alexiis II had called us. We are grateful for the presence of Russian Orthodox youth in Taizé as well as at the meetings that we prepare in European cities. They bring to young people of other countries both the testimony of their faithfulness to the Orthodox tradition and of the current revival of the Russian Church. Be assured that we are ready to do all we can to support their involvement in their local church.
Brother Alois, Prior of Taizé
April 1990, the future Patriarch Kirill welcomed in Taizé by Brother Roger