TAIZE SERVICE
Sunday 28 April
5.00pm
St. Mary's Church
Old Alresford
On Sunday 28th April at 5.00pm we will be holding a Taizé service at St Mary’s for
the whole benefice. The service will last about 45 minutes. The style of worship
comes from the community of Taizé in Burgundy, France, and is simple but
moving, based around the repetition of sung chants with readings and prayers.
The community at Taizé developed this style because they found it helped them
to focus on God as well as enabling people who spoke many different languages
to worship together.
The Taizé community began when a Swiss pastor, Roger Schultz, settled at Taizé
in 1940. The small village of Taizé was quite close to the demarcation line dividing
France in two and so it was well situated for sheltering refugees fleeing the war.
Brother Roger sheltered Jewish refugees among others.
Gradually after the Second World War other young men came to join the original
group, and on Easter Day 1949, there were seven of them who committed
themselves to live together for their whole lives in celibacy and great simplicity.
Today, the Taizé Community is made up of over a hundred brothers, both from
Catholic and from various Protestant backgrounds, coming from around thirty
nations. By its very existence, the community is a “parable of community” that
wants its life to be a sign of reconciliation between divided Christians and between
separated peoples.
The brothers of the community live solely by their work. They do not accept
donations. In the same way, they do not accept personal inheritances for
themselves; the community gives them to the very poor.
Please join us at St Mary’s on the 28th April and experience something of the
wonder, joy and riches of Taizé.
Taizé Service Planning Group
Revd. Canon Norman Boakes, Angela Peel, Gail Straker, Sally Shaw
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