Hi Everyone, If you’ve been missing our Monday night Taize prayers as much as I have, we have just the thing for you! On Monday, April 19th at 8:00 PM, Charles Absher and some of the other Monday night regulars will have a Zoom service. Details are below. Hope you can make it! ~Soyini
Greetings! We would like everyone to know about ways to connect with the Taizé Community in France during Holy Week. They will be having daily streamed prayers on the Taizé YouTube channel and Bible reflections either from Taizé Brothers or Sisters of St. Andrew. Young adults will also offer reflections. See at the bottom of this email for one of their Lenten reflections. Very lively and enriching to watch.
Taking part online in Holy Week – Use a time zone convertor to know when to tune in LIVE or you can watch a recording at your convencience-
At 12 noon during Holy Week and on Easter morning, there will be a live video broadcast of the prayer from the Church of Reconciliation in Taizé. This will be streamed on YouTube along with all other broadcasts and recordings.
Each morning of Holy Week, a video will be put online with a short Bible meditation by a Taizé brother or a Sister of St Andrew.
During Lent 2021, there have been wonderful Bible reflections. You can watch the Bible reflections on the Taizé YouTube channel. Below is the one from this week. Tune in daily during Holy Week. We will also have links on the Atlanta Taizé Facebook page. Please follow for more frequent updates.
Christmas greetings from the Taizé Atlanta prayer community! We miss gathering with you to sing and pray… Hopefully we will be able to gather in some form of in-person prayer in the next few months!
We wanted you to be sure to know about this year’s Taizé European Meeting which will take place online from December 27-January 1. All have the chance to participate by tuning in online to pray and hear reflections. It will be a time to have your hope renewed!
The theme this year is, “Hoping in season and out of season.” In addition to daily prayer and Bible reflection, there will be streamed workshops on issues of migration, violence, cooperation, and many other themes. You will hear voices of people from around the globe sharing their experiences, their work and their hope. Many more details about the workshops and prayers can be found on the Taize Community’sFacebook pageas well as their website. Please check them both out.
The daily program for the meeting is listed on this page. All the listed events will accessible on Youtube hereeach day.
You can download and printthis song booklet so that you can sing along with the prayers.
The European Meeting happens each year in different major cities. This year it was supposed to happen in Turin, Italy but had to be postponed. Instead this online meeting will give many a chance to taste the hope-filled gathering of young adults from around the world. It will be a rich and nourishing medicine to close out this year and head into 2021. We hope you can partake!
Many blessings on this day when the Holy Spirit came to renew the face of the earth! “Christ is risen from the dead and he carries the suffering of all of us and the suffering of the world today.” Br. Alois from Taizé invites us to join together and be renewed by the Spirit. “May it help us to deepen our trust in life and in God…. The Holy Spirit will come and renew the face of the earth and help us to have imagination and courage to change what needs to be changed in our world and in our personal lives.”
In Atlanta churches have had to pause their Taizé prayers due to Covid-19. As we wait for time to come back together, I encourage you to explore praying with people from around the world through the Taizé Community live-streamed prayers. You can join the brothers in France each day at 2:30 EST for their evening prayer. They will continue to stream the prayers throughout the summer. Here is the link to the daily service and a song list for the prayer.
This past weekend the Taizé Community hosted a virtual Pentecost retreat with prayers, Bible reflections, a workshop and a small group reflection for young adults joining in from home. Here is the page where you can see each of the events and connect to the recordings. The retreat will give you a taste of the bible reflections and meetings that are typical of Taizé. Enjoy!
This link will take you to the introductory Bible reflection with Br. Timothy.
Here is a beautiful virtual Pentecost choir that was posted today. 54 young people from 36 different countries sing together “Veni Sancte Spiritus” from their homes.
As we continue forward in this time full of uncertainty and unrest, may we listen deeply to those around the world and in our communities who are most in need of hope and may our imaginations be lit on fire by the Holy Spirit who was sent to us to guide us.
This year, Chantlanta invited us to offer a one hour workshop as part of their chant weekend in Virginia Highlands. We are presenting on Sunday, March 15, 2020 from 2:15 PM – 3:15 PM. We would love to see you there! During our workshop we (Lisa Persons and Soyini Coke) will give a brief story about the Taize Community and their work of reconciliation around the world. Our team of musicians (Charles Absher and Chris Palmer) will lead us in chants, sacred reading and brief silence.
We look forward to sharing this tradition to lovers of chant who will be new to the Taizé form of prayer. We’d love to have the support of regulars!
The weekend is full of various chant offerings in different traditions. You register by individual workshop. To join our workshop, look for us and register here: https://www.chantlanta.org/workshops
Photo is of Br. John and Br. Emile of Taize at the tomb of MLK, Jr.
We had a wonderful week of prayer and conversations with Br. John and Br. Emile in early October. So grateful for everyone who came out and traveled the pilgrimage road to new places in our city. People came from North Carolina, South Georgia and Tennessee. What a hopeful time of prayer and blessing.
The brothers came to support those who have been gathering for prayer in our city over the past 25 years and to broaden and deepen our connections with one another and with the greater work of the Taizé Community in their efforts to build peace and reconciliation around the world.
We had three great evenings of prayer and conversation on themes of Pilgrimage, Trust and Hospitality at Central Pres, the Cathedral of St. Philip and St. Thomas More. A bit of excitement was an 11th hour power outage at St. Thomas More. Many thanks to First Christian Church – just down the street – to opening their doors and making it work! A truly ecumenical effort.
During the day, the brothers visited places of hope and met people of hope. They led a bible study at Covenant House Atlanta with homeless youth, and visited Memorial Drive Ministries, learning about a phenomenal and creative partnership in Clarkston between a church and several non-profits seeking to help refugees and immigrants. They met with young adults doing service and study and one evening had dinner with the L’Ache Atlanta community. They also made contacts with young orthodox and priests in the city for a pan-orthodox national gathering.
They made their own pilgrimage to the King Center and Martin Luther King, Jr’s tomb. Finally, on Saturday morning they led a small workshop with alumni of the Youth Theology Initiative and Candler students and staff.
We are encouraging people to consider making their own pilgrimage to Taizé in France! A visit is a wonderful, faith-renewing experience during which you meet the world in one place and immerse yourself in the beauty of the Christian faith lived in a parable of communion.
If you took any photos during this weeks events – please message this page. We would love a couple of pictures of the prayer spaces.
Join two brothers from the ecumenical Taizé Community for evenings of prayer and reflection about building hope and reconciliation in the human family.
Not familiar with the Taizé Community in France? Explore: www.taize.fr.
“The pilgrimage of trust is first of all a meeting; with the Risen Christ and with others. Thanks to the times of prayer together, we make ourselves available for God. Through sharing and hospitality, everyone agrees to overcome barriers and differences in order to welcome and enrich one another.”
Two brothers, Br. John and Br. Émile, will visit us for a few days the first week of October 2019. They will come for a few prayers and meetings with people in Atlanta and we look forward to having a small Pilgrimage of Trust involving three churches. The brothers travel in the US for certain parts of the year, having prayers and retreats with young adults and churches in different parts of the country. They have not been to Atlanta in many years and we look forward to welcoming them! Please see the website for more details here.
Due to Hurricane Irma and the official “State of Emergency” in the state of Georgia with it’s expected tropical storm force winds Monday night, we will be staying home and staying safe. Keep all those in your prayers who are experiencing the stress of this storm.
If you wish to listen to podcasts of recent prayers in Taizé you can scroll down and find them on the Taizé website here.
Here is a prayer from Br. Alois, Prior of Taizé:
You bless us, Lord Christ, us and those you entrust to us. Keep us in the spirit of the beatitudes: joy, simplicity, and merciful love.
You must be logged in to post a comment.