Europe 2010-2015

Russia: Easter 2011

Istanbul, January 2013

Hungary: Accompanying the refugees

Ferenc, the father of a family who have lived in Taizé for several years to help welcome the young adults, went to meet refugees arriving by the tens of thousands in Hungary. Being himself Hungarian, he is preparing three young volunteers from Taizé to live a few weeks as a “Small Provisional Community”. He writes: photo: Kristóf Hölvényi We arrived around noon with Kristóf, a young photographer (...)

23 September 2015

Ukraine, April 2015: An Eastertide Pilgrimage, between suffering and hope

In April 2015, a stage of the pilgrimage of trust took place in Ukraine. After the Easter celebrations in Moscow and two days spent in Minsk, Brother Alois and four brothers of the community arrived in Kiev together with young people from different cities in Ukraine and from all over Europe. These visits were particularly marked by the suffering caused by the war in the east, but also by the (...)

27 May 2015

Russia, Easter 2015: A Pilgrimage to Moscow, in the Light of the Resurrection

Beween 8 and 19 April, Brother Alois and four other brothers spent time visiting Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Here are a few echoes from the pilgrimage in Moscow shared with a hundred young people from all over Europe and further afield. We will shortly be publishing further reflections on the time the brothers spent in Minsk and the pilgrimage to Kiev and Lviv, with testimonies from some of (...)

30 April 2015

Poland, October 2014: „Days of Communion” in Katowice

A meeting - the “Days of Communion” - took place in Katowice-Koszutka during the weekend of 10-12 October and gathered young Poles running the preparation points for this year’s European meeting. The Oblate parish hosted about 80 young people from different regions of Poland. As some local people also took part, the overall number of participants was around 100.The young people in Katowice were accompanied by the words form the letter by brother Alois “Searching for the visible communion among (...)

5 November 2014

Ukraine, October 2014: Faces of Hope

After joining the “small provisional community” in Kiev, a brother continued his stay in Ukraine by visits to several cities. Time of prayer, meetings with youth, visits to two universities and a seminar, conversations with bishops: the program was varied, especially in order to understand the situation of the country better and to encourage young people attending the meetings in Taizé, Strasbourg and soon in Prague. What was particularly important was visiting Christians of all (...)

13 October 2014

Belarus, September 2014: Discovering the Source of a Unity Beyond Borders

In September 2014, a brother of Taizé visited Belarus, after the summer meetings at Taizé in which several groups from that country took part and before the meetings in Riga and Prague. In this account of his travel, he shares some experiences lived out during his visit, with the "Proposals 2014" from Brother Alois as guidelines.Christ extended his friendship to all, without rejecting anyone. Those who love Christ all across the earth form, in his steps, a large community of friendship. This (...)

12 October 2014

Riga, September 2014: To the Baltic Countries as Pilgrims of Peace and Trust

From 26 to 28 September 2014, a gathering led by the Taizé Community was held in Riga, the capital of Latvia. For several years, the Lutheran and Catholic archbishops had extended an invitation. It was during the Strasbourg meeting that the news was confirmed by Brother Alois: an upcoming stage in the pilgrimage of trust on earth would take place in Latvia five years after the meeting in (...)

1 October 2014

UK: Weekend in Edinburgh
15-16 March 2014

“Towards a new solidarity” A brother of the Community was in Edinburgh for the weekend on the theme of the 2015 anniversaries at Taizé. 300 people gathered in Old St Paul’s Church in the city-centre for the evening prayer which was the main event of the weekend in Edinburgh. Participants had come from all over Scotland, including the islands of Tiree and Arran. Seventeen of the members of the (...)

14 April 2014

Norway, Spring 2013: "We are truly one in Christ"

Young people aged between 15 and 35 were particularly invited to take part in this meeting in the Bjørgvin Diocese, and they were the majority of the weekend’s participants, together with one of the brothers and two volunteers from Taizé. In the days before the meeting, they visited schools and churches, as well as taking part in all sorts of meetings, speaking about life at Taizé. The ecumenical committee for the meeting, made up of both Protestants and Catholics, has helped strengthen the (...)

14 July 2013

Czech Republic: Preparing “Vigils of Trust” in Prague, November 2012

... a good lesson of trust for making commitments Five years ago in Zlin, three years ago in Brno and last year in Olomouc, some young people prepared a meeting called “Dny důvěry” (Days of Trust). Those week-ends were gatherings of young adults between 17 and 35 years old from all over the Czech Republic. All the participants were welcomed by families of the different parishes and the local (...)

27 January 2013

Mantova, September 2012: Brothers and volunteers visit a sorely tried region

Two volunteers from Taizé were in Mantova during May 2012. A few weeks later the region was struck by several earthquakes. Frederik (The Netherlands) and Davide (Italy) went back to visit the inhabitants of the Mantova region again in September. They were there to take part in a national meeting with two brothers of the community and young people who had come from various regions of Italy, and (...)

8 November 2012

Finland: Meeting in Helsinki

28-30 September 2012 What is a “Nordic Taizé meeting”? It really is something that is quite hard to describe!There is no theme or slogan written up above the door: only ’tervetuloa’, ’välkommen’, ’Bures boahtin’, ’Hau kola’, ’welcome’.Is praying with songs and silence really enough to bring people together? One of the brothers has described Taizé meetings as ’controlled natural (...)

16 October 2012

Finland : A Chain of Friendship

In July 2012 the first Taizé song in the Finnish language was published. It is a concrete sign of the 50-year-long friendship between the Taizé brothers and the people of Finland.How did the friendship start? It started with meetings between people, first through writings. In the early 1960s Elisabeth de Godzinsky, who lived in Helsinki, Finland, read articles by Brother Roger in French Christian magazines. She was touched. The words about reconciliation were important for her, personally as (...)

23 July 2012

Ljubljana, May 2012: A mosaic of encounters in the midst of the Slovenian springtime

From 28 April to 1 May 2012, an international meeting for young adults was held in the Slovenian capital. This new stage of the pilgrimage of trust on earth enabled young people from numerous countries to experience Slovenian hospitality and to deepen their faith. On the banks of the Ljubljanica, the first real days of spring gave a fine impression of serenity to the pedestrian city centre. As in a mosaic, each of the participants, volunteers, and Christians of the city contributed (...)

3 May 2012

Estonia 2012: Renewing trust

Prayer house in Nurste At the beginnings of the 1990s, young Estonians came in thousands to the European meetings and to Taizé. At the time of independence, there was a great interest for faith. The situation has changed since then, but it is as if people are once again starting to realise that "although communication is becoming easier and easier, our human societies remain compartmentalized (...)

15 March 2012

Germany, 2012: A visit to Cologne

At the beginning of March, following a visit to the World Council of Churches in Geneva, with brothers and young people, and before going on to Rome, Brother Alois, accompanied by two other brothers, made a stop in Cologne. Brothers had already prayed in Saint Agnes Church during the 2005 WYD and during the 2006 “Kirchentag” (meeting of the German Protestant Churches). Each year many young (...)

10 March 2012

Latvia 2012: Seeking signs of hope

One of the brothers describes a recent visit he made in Latvia.There doesn’t seem to be much good news coming out of Latvia at the moment. When the country appears in the news, the talk is always of economic problems or political turmoil. But is that the whole picture? Don’t we sometimes fall prey to pessimism? What are the signs of "New Solidarity" that exist already? With temperatures around -30C, I travelled to the eastern province of Latgale. A group of young people together with their (...)

8 March 2012

Austria, March 2011: Meeting in Vienna

Brother Alois and other brothers of Taizé were in Vienna, Austria, in March 2011 for an evening prayer and a youth meeting, as part of the pilgrimage of trust. The links between the Taizé Community and the people of Vienna go back a long way. Well before the European meetings in 1992 and 1997, there were regular prayers in the city. Brother Roger himself went on various (...)

11 April 2011

Italy: March 2011: Prayers and visits

In 1978, Brother Roger went with a group of young brothers to Bari, a city in southern Italy, to spend time in a poor neighborhood in the center of the city. The brothers prayed three times a day in the old church of the neighborhood, worked with the residents and offered hospitality for a simple evening meal and a time of sharing. After they left, some local youth decided to continue the daily prayer, doing all they could to revive the local community. In March this year, two brothers of (...)

6 April 2011

Bosnia-Herzegovina: After the meeting in Sarajevo

Five months after the meeting that Taizé brothers led last year in Sarajevo, on the invitation of Cardinal Puljic and Orthodox Metropolitan Nicolaj, one of the brothers has been back in the region recently.“The first stage of the journey was a day spent in a village in the North East of Serbia, near the frontier with Romania. The people there speak Slovak and most of them are Lutherans. The pastor, who knows Taizé well and who took part in the meeting in Sarajevo, invited the young people and (...)

14 March 2011

Croatia: “Something that they want to share with others”

One of the brothers has visited Croatia on a number of occasions. He reflects here on these visits, the most recent of which took place in February 2011. In 2006, the European young adults meeting was held in the Croatian capital ZagrebOnce again the young people from Croatia were astonishingly numerous at the European meeting at Rotterdam. In order to take part in such a gathering, they do not wait for someone else to organise the journey for them. In the parishes, in the schools, between (...)

28 February 2011