Taizé services

The Ministry Area runs occasional services following the pattern of worship at Taizé – you can find them in the events calendar.

Taizé is the name of a village in Burgundy, close to some famous wine-growing areas. A monastery was founded there after the last war by Brother Roger, who originally moved there in 1940 to help people escape from Nazi-occupied Northern France. Over the years, Brother Roger and his followers devised a distinctive style of worship which has inspired “Taizé services” all over the world.

Taizé services are based on simple chants, repeated many times, often with a soloist adding a line of music on top. The chants are derived from the Bible and reflect the understanding that, “When we try to express communion with God in words, our minds quickly come up short. But, in the depths of our being, through the Holy Spirit, Christ is praying far more than we imagine.” So, when we sing the chants, we are asking to receive God’s love in the depths of our hearts. There is also a reading from the Psalms and from the Gospels.

In the middle of the worship, there is always a time of silence of between 5 and ten minutes. Brother Roger loved to emphasize the value of silence for helping us let go of our preoccupations and hear God speaking to us, often with a new intuition, always with encouragement.

Of course, a description like this will not tell you what it is really like to invest an hour of your time in attending a Taizé service. The only way to find out is to come and see.