Juan from Argentina is part of the international team preparing the Kigali meeting, which will be held in mid-November. He writes:We are less than a month away from the beginning of the meeting and everyone is getting ready: the young participants, the families who will be welcoming pilgrims and the coordination teams of welcome, prayer and morning program in the parishes. (...)
The final phase of the preparation for the next African stage of the pilgrimage of trust has begun in Rwanda. Brothers from Taizé and two sisters of Saint Andrew have been in Kigali since the beginning of the September to welcome the young adults who make up the coordination team. In all, they number around twenty people from fifteen different nationalities. 15/09, coordination meeting with representatives of the parishes Based on the Youth Centre at Gatenga, this team will continue to visit and support the parish (...)
These are a few extracts from the journal of one of the brothers, just returned from Rwanda :Friday 1st June : At the Gatenga Youth Centre, we come back to our little corner of Rwanda: the marsh, the banana plantation, the brick house and Father Camiel, as always, welcoming. The road that runs behind "our" house is a building site. It’s going to be asfalted. What a boon for the November meeting! But for now it creates an incredible amount of dust ... Between two hoardings, where they are building new shopping centres, steps cut into the (...)
Africa hope Nicolas Noudjiadji, a young man from Chad, shares his experience and his reflection on the need to create again and again new links between the continents, whereas the different societies and the international situation do not stop evolving and the temptation to fall back can spring up again on different sides. The baptised share the awareness of a fraternity that transcends all the frontiers and particularities. This confers on them a capacity but also a responsibility to render visible the unity of the human family. If they (...)
The Taizé brothers living in Nairobi have just spent a month in Kigali to begin preparing for the November meeting. They met with the heads of the various churches present in Rwanda, contacted the authorities and services implicated in the practical arrangements and made visits to see young people throughout the country. Here are a few excerpts from ones of the brothers’ diary:15th February. We land in Kigali to stay for a month. This is the first phase of preparation on the ground for the November youth meeting. This year we will have one (...)
A small group of brothers has just spent four weeks in Rwanda. One of them, who lives in Kenya, writes:“The rainy season is generous in Rwanda. In the fertile soil, at the foot of the volcanoes to the North, there are regularly three harvests of red beans and four of potatoes! We hope that the hospitality at the meeting will be as generous as nature! Welcoming and taking care of the 6000 participants expected to come from outside for the next stage of the pilgrimage of trust, in Kigali, are a real challenge. Expectations and mobilisation (...)
Two brothers, accompanied by two young Kenyans, spent the 8th to 20th of last November in Rwanda for a new stage towards the pilgrimage of trust on earth to be held in Kigali from November 14th to 18th 2012. Way of the Cross This visit consisted firstly of some time spent in visiting parish officials and youth chaplains to introduce them to the preparations for next year’s meeting and to fix some dates with some of the young people likely to take part. At the same time, it was necessary to ask for their help in (...)
Dates: Arrival, welcome and first prayer on November 14th 2012, departure on November 18th 2012. Participants are from 18 to 30 years of age. Accommodation will be in host families, (in halls or schools/colleges if necessary). Simple meals will be served: breakfast in the places of accommodation; lunch and dinner at the common venue after midday and evening prayers. Programme of the meeting Wednesday 14.11.2012 Welcome between 7 am and 12 noon and transport to the host parishes Around 4 pm departure from the parishes5:30 pm: dinner and (...)
