TAIZÉ

Some Recent News

Finnish Lutheran bishops visit Taizé

On Wednesday 13 March 2024, Brother Matthew and the community were delighted to welcome the bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland to Taizé for the day.

The bishops were in Geneva for an ecumenical study trip. They attended midday prayer and shared lunch with the community. In the afternoon, they reflected with the brothers on the themes of the unity of the Church, listening and dialogue, as well as the forthcoming European meeting in Tallinn, a city which is 82 km from Helsinki, two hours by ferry.

Continuing our journey together in 2024

The following meetings are planned in 2024:

• International meetings in Taizé throughout the year for young adults aged 18 to 35 (Other age groups, see here.)

• Holy Week and Easter in Taizé from 24 March to 7 April 2024

• Meeting of Friendship between young Muslims and Christians from 7 to 12 July 2024

• Sharing and discovering the faith of the Orthodox Churches from 4 to 11 August 2024

• Week of reflection for young adults aged 18 to 35 from 25 August to1 September 2024

• European Meeting of Young Adults from 28 December 2024 to 1 January 2025 in Tallinn, Estonia.


Volunteering in Taizé

The meetings in Taizé are made possible thanks to a group of young volunteers: young women and men aged between 18 and 29. They are welcomed for longer periods in Taizé, from a few weeks to a year:

Together... praying

  • ▪ Nothing that happens at Taizé would be possible without the three common prayers, and it is also through prayer that the volunteers help to welcome all those who come.

Together... living in community

  • ▪ Together, building a small temporary community with young people from every continent, from different Churches, in the shared richness of our diversity.

Together... serving other people

  • ▪ Make it possible, by being available, to welcome young people in Taizé.

If you want to know more, see Volunteering in Taizé.

Week of prayer for Christian unity

The week of prayer for Christian unity will take place, as every year from January 18 to 25. All our friends from the area are invited to come to Taizé on Thursday January 18 at 6pm for a prayer service, followed by refreshments. The prayer will be broadcast live:


Before this, beginning at 5pm in room 15, there will be a meeting with Brother Matthew for those who wish.

NB: evening prayer will take place on January 18 at 6pm, and not at 8:30pm as usual.

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Christmas Meditation by Brother Matthew

Welcome to all of you who have come from the region near Taizé this Christmas night when we are celebrating the nativity of Jesus. With my brothers, we are very glad to welcome you here in the Church of Reconciliation. At the end of the Eucharist, we are going to light our candles with the light that has come from Bethlehem and which is burning in this lantern. Then we will go outside and sing in front of the crib outside the church.

We have just heard the Gospel of the birth of Jesus. It’s a well-known story for many of us, but what does it have to say to us this evening? For me, it is a story that offers us some Christmas gifts. I can think of three gifts that we can receive by listening to it, gifts that God gives to each one of us. Perhaps you will recognise others as you reread the story.

The first gift is “joy”. There are the shepherds; they are not privileged people; they have to spend the night outside with their sheep. To these poor people, the angel, God’s messenger, announces “great joy”, not only for them but for all the people: good news to be shared. The shepherds will in their turn become messengers of God.

This “great joy” will also be the joy of Jesus’ friends at the end of the Gospel. It will fill their hearts after Christ’s death and resurrection. Joy can come to birth when we go through tight places. What is the joy I am receiving these days? How can I share it with others?

The second gift is called “peace”. At the sight of God’s messenger, the shepherds were seized with great fear. We can be taken aback when we realise that God is present. But the angel says: “Do not be afraid”. And then the whole sky sings of the peace that God offers to all the inhabitants of the earth, whom he loves without exception.

The peace that the shepherds receive in their hearts is to shine out around them. One of the early witnesses to Christ said: “Begin the work of peace within yourself so that, once you are at peace, you may bring peace to others”. Thinking about the violence in ourselves, in our societies and in our world, what is my responsibility for of this peace that God announces and entrusts to us?

The third gift I would call “newness”. The birth of Jesus is something completely new in the history of humanity. And the amazing thing for us, as for the shepherds, is that God chooses to meet us at the point where we are. God is no longer far away, but close to us. God is there, very weak, humble and poor in the baby Jesus, dependent on Mary, his mother, on Joseph and the others around him. And he entrusts himself to our care as well.
If something is new, it is often fragile. It needs to be welcomed, cared for and supported. And yet every new thing is part of a story. It is not by chance that Luke begins his account of the birth of Jesus by situating it among the current events of the time. What is new arises in our experience of life as it is lived, an experience in which we are invited to discern the traces of God.

What is the newness that God is asking us to welcome this Christmas night and during this Christmas season? Even if it is fragile, how can we create a space where we can nourish it and let it grow?

Let us welcome these three gifts from God: joy, peace and newness. Then we can then offer them to others too, by the way we live. Maybe this could be the challenge that Christmas presents to us all…


Celebration live from Taizé

The Christmas Eucharist was broadcast from 8.30pm (Paris time) on the evening of Sunday 24 December.

Brother Matthew has become prior

The Taizé Community has a new prior. On Saturday 2 December, Brother Alois handed over his office to Brother Matthew in the presence of representatives of various Churches and many friends of the Community, as well as the young people in Taizé for the week.

Among the Church representatives, five were asked to say a prayer for Brother Matthew’s start as “servant of communion” in the Community: Bishop Benoît Rivière of Autun, Chalon and Mâcon, Metropolitan Maximos of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Geneva, Anglican Bishops Olivia Graham of Reading and Smitha Prasadam of Huddersfield, and Pastor Laurent Schlumberger, former President of the United Protestant Church of France. Others present included Pastor Christian Krieger, President of the French Protestant Federation, and the Lutheran Bishop of Riga, Rinalds Grants.


Photos of some key moments

Photos : Tamino Petelinsek

To obtain high resolution photos, please write to media taize.fr.