ABOUT TAIZE SERVICES

Prayer is a serene force at work within human beings, stirring them up, transforming them, never allowing them to close their eyes in the face of evil, or wars, of all that threatens the weak of this world. From it we draw energy to wage other struggles – to enable our loved ones to survive, to transform the human condition, to make the earth a place fit to live in.

Brother Roger of Taize

Taize (pronounced tah-ZAY) is a monastic community in southeastern France. It was founded in 1940 with the mission of healing the divisions between Christians and within the human family. The community seeks to create an environment where reconciliation could become a concrete reality every day.  It is an ecumenical community which includes 100 brothers from over twenty different countries.

Thousands of Christian people from all over the world, young and old, gather at Taize every week to pray, to search, to sing, and to find refreshment and renewal. The Taize service is marked by its depth and by its simplicity. It lasts for about an hour and consists mostly of singing with periods of silent meditation, prayers of intercession, and with readings from the book of Psalms and Gospels.

The songs are not meant to be sung as hymns, but rather as a series of prayers. Some are sung in Latin and others in English. They are repeated many times over transforming themselves into melodic chants and mesmerizing mantras. The hope is that the repetitiveness will be helpful in not only learning the words and music, but also in allowing the songs to become prayers of the heart.

Time is suspended in a Taize service. Silence is a central part of this service and is a gift to those leading busy, hectic lives. It provides an opportunity to commune with God through the heart and bring a measure of peace to one’s mind and spirit.

For more information on the Taize Community, visit: http://www.taize.fr/en (english version)

In the midst of increasing conflict and war the Roundtable has come to symbolize the basic step in building reconciliation, just relationships, and peace. At the same time it is a symbol for Christ's presence as nurture and counsel.

The Roundtable gatherings provide an opportunity:

-- For people to bring their concerns about our globe to the table in a prayerful, structured conversation. Priority is given to public matters crying out for reconciliation. Exchange of concerns and perspectives can focus on a single topic, art piece or performance, scripture, or reading. The table is held open to as wide a range of perspectives as possible.

-- For people to celebrate Christ's presence at table with tangible symbols of the bountiful banquet still to come. Our celebration seeks to:

Use gender-inclusive language respecting the equality of all people and the mystery of the Holy One who includes and transcends all gender distinctions;

Employ language and symbols for God's just order drawn from our contemporary world of constitutional democracy;

Celebrate the wholeness and mystery of creation;

Engage the challenges of justice, restoration, and social service;

Be circular and participatory, with shared leadership;

Use silence, the arts, and symbols that go beyond the spoken word.

 

Coming to the Table
Reflections at the Roundtable

by William Johnson Everett

(Reflections at the conclusion of a JustPeace Gathering, April 9, 2003, in Nashville, TN. JustPeace is a restorative justice movement in the United Methodist Church.)

We have been gathered in circles of mutual reflection for the past two days. The circle is the natural geometry of the equality, mutuality, forgiveness, and reconciliation we are seeking in our relationships. So it is appropriate that we gather around a roundtable in our time of worship. It has become the symbol of reconciliation in our time - the roundtables of the revolutions to democratic self-government in east Europe as well as the roundtable conversations that spring up wherever people seek to negotiate their conflicts as equals.

The roundtable is not the only symbol of reconciliation in Christian history. For much of our history reconciliation has been symbolized in terms of an altar of sacrifice. Recalling the intended sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham, it has dramatized the sacrifice of Jesus, as the son of God, to the Father. The submission of the son's will to the father - a fundamental model of patriarchal rule - has stood at the center of our worship life. We have assembled in churches to look passively at the altar, whose shape was often dictated by the size of the sarcophagus below it, and rehearse that sacrifice of reconciliation.

The Roundtable symbolizes reconciliation through the table presence of Christ, who calls everyone to participate in a real dialogue of mutual confession, forgiveness, and reconciliation through the forging of new covenants of mutual accountability. Jesus's whole ministry took place through meals and table gatherings. He broke the taboos that separated people from table fellowship, drawing people into conversation and conviviality as well as controversy. In his final table gathering, his honest confrontation was a necessary prelude to the invitation to participate in the one body of his fellowship at the table.

This table, with its circular shape, invites us over and over to participate in this conversation of reconciliation, with its many dimensions of honest address, argument, mutual acceptance, and new covenant. But it is not only a table of common counsel. It is not only a table of democratic participation. It is also the table of nurture - of food and drink that unites us with our bodies and with this precious planet that sustains us. Through the table we rehearse - in immediate physical ways -- not only our reconciliation with other humans but also with the earth and our common Creator.

The table in our midst has green and blue ribbons laid on the axes of this earth and intersecting at the center, where a candle burns in a bowl of water. The light illuminating our lives and drawing us to God's center floats in the waters of passage, of death, and of new life. Surrounding the candle is a circle of barbed wire to remind us of the captivity and brokenness of our world and of each one of us. But it is a barrier we overcome in the eating and drinking, in the breaking down of hostility through honest conversation at the table where the Spirit of Christ presides. Come, come to the table.