Meeting Video

Reactions to the news that the European Meeting will be in Rostock

Brother Alois

We are happy that the people of Rostock and the region can meet young people from all over Europe. Different as we are, we can show a sign of trust and peace within the Church and beyond. It is a pilgrimage of trust that will touch our hearts and can move us forward on the path of peace.

Tilman Jeremias, Protestant Bishop for Mecklenburg and Pomerania

I thank the Taizé brothers for having chosen to hold this meeting in Rostock and in the region, so for the first time not in a metropolis. It is a great opportunity for us to be able to welcome in our region thousands of young people from all over Europe, young people coming to pray, sing and be silent together.

Dr. Stefan Hesse, Catholic Archbishop of the diocese of Hamburg

With Rostock, the Taizé brothers have chosen a truly European place. The Hanseatic city has an influence throughout the Baltic basin. Its university offers a place of learning and a home to many young people, both local and international. There is a very good understanding between the Christian churches which is the source of spirituality and faith. Common prayer, singing, silence - I am happy that the spirit of Taizé will come to Rostock this year.

Isabell Fedtke (19), President of the Catholic Youth of Mecklenburg (KJM)

Many young people from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern have already been to the brothers in Taizé in France and have experienced their hospitality. Now Taizé comes to us and offers us a great chance that more young people will find their way to us, even beyond the meeting, because they find through the atmosphere of Taizé an access to the spiritual or because they find through the sharing with others ideas with which they can enrich the life of young people in their local communities.

Albrecht Jax, pastor and local preparation coordinator

The Rostock region - from the point of view of the life of the churches - is not as sated as perhaps Wroclaw, Turin, Madrid or Basel - the places of the last European meetings. It is precisely this fact that several brothers have recognised as an opportunity: to go to a place where everything will not be as it has always been in the past. (...) We want to involve sports clubs and young volunteer firemen as well as the "Volkssolidarität" ("people’s solidarity" - social association) - from Rostock to Güstrow, Stralsund and Teterow.

Hình ảnh: © Raymond Strauß