2 December 2008
It’s been several years since a brother of the community has visited Latvia and Estonia. During that time, young people from these countries have continued to take part in the gatherings in Taizé and the European meetings. More and more are travelling individually. Earlier many came with groups from their parishes. Perhaps this mirrors changes in church life?
A weekend in Riga gave the opportunity to bring together young people from different church traditions for prayer and Bible reflection. Some made the journey from towns and villages in (...)
12 June 2008
Brother Alois, accompanied by two other brothers, was in Moscow from 28 May to 2 June. He was eager to go there to express to Patriarch Alexis II the Taizé Community’s desire to continue on its way in great closeness and in deep trust with the Russian Orthodox Church. He expressed it, “Brother Roger opened up a way and we want to continue in his footsteps. The Russian Orthodox Church had a special place in his heart. He had infinite respect for it because of all the trials it has come through, and he recalled how much so many Orthodox (...)
9 May 2008
A brother was in Spain in April 2008I spent ten days making visits in Spain. For the first three days I was in Madrid. Then I went North, stopping in Valladolid, Burgos, Vitoria, Bilbao, Santander, Oviedo and finally, on the way back, in Segovia. In spite of the rain and the cold, the welcome, as so often in Spain, was very warm.
In Madrid I met groups who have been praying with great faithfulness for a very long time. The first evening, I went to a parish in the south of the city. The neighbourhood is called Carabanchel Alto. It is a (...)
23 April 2008
At the end of January two of the brothers attended the funeral of Mgr Christodoulos, Archbishop of Athens and all of Greece. He knew Brother Roger well and followed closely what was happening at Taizé. One of the brothers went back to Greece at the beginning of April for a longer visit. He had a meeting with a young collaborator of the new archbishop, Mgr Ieronimos, to discuss possibilities of future contacts and exchanges with the Orthodox Church of Greece.
Meetings with young people took place in several cities: at Volos, Halandri (...)
12 February 2008
A recent journey to Russia led the brothers to Moscow, Siberia and Saint Petersburg
“You are lucky: the snow has arrived in time to welcome you. Everything is clean and bright – for us, the first snow is always a joy!” After two hours of traffic jams, I meet again in Chtchoukinskaya the hospitality of Olga, Micha and Katia. In their district, the buildings of the Sixties, still proud behind their curtain of silver birches, are gradually being demolished and replaced by huge constructions, forty storeys high, like (...)
23 August 2007
In 1986, two young people, one from Sarajevo and the other from Mostar, hitchhiked their way to Taizé. At the end of July this year (2007), 180 young people from Bosnia-Herzegovina spent a week at Taizé. For more than twenty years, young people from this hard hit country have taken part in meetings each year, either at Taizé or in European cities. This year, they came from various towns: Sarajevo, Livno, Kiseljak, Banja Luka, Ljubuski … and, above all, from Mostar.
The Bishop of Mostar wrote a letter to the young people of his Diocese who were (...)
13 June 2007
“Choosing to love, choosing hope… God welcomes us as we are, with what is good, but also with our inner contradictions and even our faults.” These words from the “Letter from Kolkata” accompanied the visits a brother made recently in many places in the North of Germany. The international atmosphere in the youth meetings in Taizé and in the end of the year European meetings gives rise to hope. As they take part, the young people feel that they are not alone with their longing and that on every continent there are men and women who choose hope, (...)
26 May 2007
In mid-April, one of the brothers made a journey through Austria; at each stop there were meetings with young adults.Vienna
On the Sunday after Easter, young people from Vienna and the surrounding region gathered in the Jugendkirche, the “Youth Church”. Together with the team from the Jugendkirche, they had a time of reflection on the words of the disciples, “We have seen the Lord” (John 20.25). What does it mean when we say that Christ is alive among us as the Risen One? How can we meet Jesus today? How does Easter transform our lives? How (...)
8 May 2007
The meeting in Stockholm took place from 3 to 6 May 2007. Here are some impressions, noted as as the meeting unfolded.
Tuesday 1 May
We’ve often been told that people in Sweden need to have everything planned well in advance. Tonight, as the first groups arrived for the meeting, we were shown how hollow that generalisation is. The 23 Croatians were asked to arrive, as planned, at the parish house of Sofia Church. Imagine our surprise when we discovered the flat of one of the older pastors open, all her best china (...)
7 May 2007
Thousands take part in weekend of prayerChoosing to love, choosing hope
On Sunday May 6, the youth meeting held in Stockholm and led by the Taizé Community, from France, on the theme “Choosing to love, choosing hope,” drew to its close. Beginning on Thursday May 3, the gathering brought together young people from 20 different countries including Croatia, Serbia, Ukraine, Poland, the Baltic countries and Finland and Scandinavia for a weekend of prayer and sharing. Over 2,000 people joined the times of worship in Katarina Church on Södermalm (...)
6 April 2007
Part of South-Eastern Europe - Greece for some time, Bulgaria and Romania quite recently – now belongs to the European Union. Other countries in the region are still in a difficult or unstable situation. Wounds from the recent conflicts can still be felt. All of the countries in the region were represented at the young adult European meeting in Zagreb. It was a beautiful sign of how Christians are called to “live in communion beyond national borders” (Letter from Kolkata). Following the meeting in Zagreb, a brother set off on a small (...)
26 November 2006
Bradford: Thursday 16 November 2006, evening prayer in Bradford CathedralLondon: Saturday 18 November 2006, evening prayer in Westminster Abbey, with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the Moderator of the Free Church Council, Rev. David Coffey, and Bishop Nathan of the Armenian ChurchBerlin: Sunday 19 November 2006, prayer at the Berliner Dom, with Dr Wolfgang Huber, Lutheran Bishop of Berlin and President of the Council of the Evangelical Churches of Germany; and an auxiliary bishop (...)
6 November 2006
One of the brothers writes: In Russia, the economy continues to grow. The effects of the energy windfall are there for all to see. Most spectacular is the enormous activity in the construction industry and in public works: apartment buildings, private houses, motorways… Commerce is another flourishing sector: from the suburban supermarkets to the stalls improvised on the pavements, businesses are making brisk progress. The younger you are the more you can make money quickly. Road traffic is another indicator: there is almost one car for (...)
10 June 2006
During his visit to Moscow, Brother Alois handed over the following text to Patriarch Alexis II.Following Brother Roger’s death, it seemed to me essential to come to Moscow with two of our brothers during the first year of my new ministry, to express our community’s desire to continue on its way in great closeness and in profound confidence with the Holy Russian Orthodox Church. Brother Roger opened up this way for us and I want us, his brothers, to walk in his footsteps.
It was in December 1962 that a closer relation between our community (...)
3 June 2006
“The great day of prayer" is a specifically Danish festival, on the 4th Friday after Easter Sunday. It was established in 1686 to replace several minor festivals of prayer and fasting. One of the brothers was in Denmark for the occasion.The five day visit was prepared by a young people’s group called “ecumenical youth”. Prayers, Bible introductions and meetings took place in five cities during the weekend during which all over the country people were celebrating “the great day of prayer”.
Even though the state Church remains strong throughout (...)
9 April 2006
During a recent visit to Ukraine a brother saw the situation of the country and of the church there reflected in the weather! Heavy snowfalls and cold were succeeded by sudden warmer temperatures only to give way again to more winter-like conditions. Since the events of the "orange revolution" over a year ago there have also been advances followed by disappointments.Some people said it was unrealistic to expect big changes in such a short time while others clearly felt disappointed that many major problems in public life had not begun to (...)
