Europe 2015-2020

Lviv 2018

Austria: Meeting in Graz

Romania, Easter 2016: Pilgrimage to Bucharest

UK: Birmingham 2017

Russia: Pilgrimage to a second springtime

Invited by the Russian Orthodox Church metropolitan diocese of Kemerovo, Brother Alois went with another brother and a group of young people on pilgrimage to this city in faraway Siberia for the Feast of the Ascension from May 16 to 19, 2018. Most of the pilgrims were able to spend two days in Moscow visiting parishes who had welcomed young people for the 2011 and 2015 Easter pilgrimages led (...)

1 June 2018

Sweden: Pilgrimage and apples

At the invitation of Bishop of Växjö, Fredrik Modéus, the Christian churches in Jönköping organized a weekend aimed at young adults aged 17-35 years old, from 20 to 22 April 2018.In mid-April, all priests and deacons from Växjö diocese in the Church of Sweden gathered in Växjö Cathedral for their four yearly meeting. Among their guests were two brothers from Taizé. The Bishop made a double invitation (...)

23 April 2018

Ireland: News from Ireland

Rock of Cashel, County Tipperary 2017 As part of a visit throughout Ireland this October, one of the brothers of Taizé will be present for prayers and meetings in various towns and cities. Here are several of the prayers which will be open to all: 7:30pm on Friday 13th in Saint Paul’s, Arran Quay, Dublin 7:30pm on Tuesday 17th in Clonard’s Church, Belfast 7pm on Thursday 19th in St. Mary’s (...)

11 October 2017

Hamina, City of Peace

In August 2017, a weekend with a Taizé brother at Hamina, on the border with Russia, was part of the official celebration of 100 years of Finland’s independence ‘Suomi100’. The invitation to hold the meeting was an initiative of the City of Hamina together with Lutheran, Orthodox, Catholic and free Churches. The Taizé Hamina meeting was small but beautiful, and meaningful. The territory in (...)

17 September 2017

Taizé in Brussels: New paths of trust

During the Palm Sunday weekend a Taizé meeting will be held in Brussels. At the invitation of Cardinal de Kesel, Archbishop of Malines-Bruxelles, brothers from Taizé and young people from Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany and Luxembourg will meet for a weekend of meeting and prayer. Brother Alois will be there on Saturday evening.On the site dedicated to the event we read: Along with (...)

22 February 2017

Autumn 2016: A Visit to Belarus

This fall, a brother spent a week in Belarus, to visit the Christian communities and meet the young people preparing to participate in the Riga meeting at the end of the year. In spring 2015, Brother Alois and four other brothers spent two days in Minsk between the pilgrimages in Russia and Ukraine. The links are ancient between Taizé and the Churches of Belarus. Many young people came to the (...)

23 November 2016

France, All Saints 2016 : The testimony of refugees in Taizé

During the holiday of All Saints, more than five thousand French young people passed through Taizé in three successive waves. Among others, they met young Germans, Belgians, Dutch, Danish or Spanish, who were also on a pilgrimage on the hill, as well as young refugees hosted by the community for a year and an Iraqi family. Ahmed, a young Sudanese, 23, and Nemat, a young Afghan, 25, (...)

3 November 2016

Sweden 2016: Prayer with Brother Alois in Lund

On October 30, the evening before the Joint Ecumenical Gathering with Pope Francis “Together in Hope”, which will be held in Lund Domkyrka on October 31, Brother Alois will take part in an evening prayer at Klosterkyrkan in Lund. The prayer will begin at 20.00, but will be preceded by a song practice beginning at 19.30. This time of worship and thanksgiving is open especially to young (...)

5 October 2016

2016: Continuing pilgrimage in Russia

Since the two pilgrimages in 2011 and 2015 with youth to Moscow during Holy Week and Easter, links with Orthodox parishes in the city have continued and deepened. Recently a brother returned to Moscow and also visited St Petersburg.In central parishes of the two cities, a day was held on successive weekends for young Russians beginning with the Divine Liturgy, then a Bible study and small (...)

12 June 2016

Sweden 2016: Refugees, coffee and prayer

In the second half of April, two of the long-term volunteers in Taizé, Richard from Bangladesh and Merric from Australia, travelled throughout Sweden. Here is the story of their journey.From the 18th of April we began a two week visit to Sweden to visit churches, schools and share in prayer together with the youth of this beautiful and diverse country. Not knowing what to expect, we (...)

31 May 2016

April 2016: A Volunteer on a Boat Saving Refugees in the Mediterranean

Celine, a young woman from Montpellier, was at the European Meeting in Valencia and spoke there about her human and faith experience as a young nurse in India, Tanzania and in the Calais refugee camp. After the European meeting, she boarded a lifeboat of the Mediterranean SOS Association, Aquarius, where she joined a team of Doctors of the World. She came back to France in May, and she hopes (...)

27 May 2016

Spring 2016: On the island of Lesbos with those who had to leave everything

A young woman from Portugal who was in Taizé as a volunteer for several months, Sara Sofia, is now working on the island of Lesbos in a refugee camp. At the time when Pope Francis, Patriarch Bartholomew and the Archbishop of Athens, Hieronymos, are going to the island to meet with the refugees, we are publishing her account of her experiences. “I volunteer at a refugee camp in Lesbos, (...)

15 April 2016

Moldova, February 2016: Come Back in the Spring!

One of the brothers recently spent a week visiting the Republic of Moldova. There are some countries that you hear about all the time. There are others you just hear about when there is a problem. And then there are places that seem to be almost invisible, that a lot of people don’t even realise exist: “Moldova – isn’t that where Tintin went to find King Ottakar’s sceptre? Is it a real (...)

15 March 2016