Europe 2010-2015

Istanbul, January 2013

2011 Pilgrimage in Moscow

2015 With refugees in Hungary

Ferenc, the father of a family who have lived in Taizé for several years went to meet refugees arriving by the tens of thousands in Hungary. He writes: photo: Kristóf Hölvényi We arrived around noon with Kristóf, a young photographer friend, at the border dividing Hungary from Serbia. On leaving the quiet village of Röszke, suddenly a camp of two or three hectares lay before us on both sides of (...)

23 September 2015

2015 Pilgrimage in Ukraine

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

2015 An Easter Pilgrimage to Moscow

Beween 8 and 19 April 2015, 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 (...)

30 April 2015

2014 Weekend in Edinburgh

“Towards a new solidarity” A brother of the Community was in Edinburgh for the weekend 15-16 March 2014. 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 choir of St Mirin’s Cathedral, (...)

14 April 2014

2013 Norway

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

2012 After the earthquake, Mantova (Italy)

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

2012 Meeting in Helsinki (Finland)

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

2012 Ljubljana Meeting

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. A mosaic of encounters in the midst of the Slovenian springtime 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 (...)

3 May 2012

2012 Estonia

Renewing our 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, (...)

15 March 2012