With sadness our friends at Emory Presbyterian have to stop hosting the Taize prayer service on the first Mondays each month. Thank you Emory Presbyterian for many years of faithful prayer!
Pilgrimage of Trust in St. Louis 2017
From the Taize community:
Taking part in a pilgrimage of trust means:
- Crossing borders to share together in simplicity
- Going together to the wellsprings of trust in the beauty of worship and song
- Becoming people of trust and solidarity
The Taizé Community has been invited to take its “pilgrimage of trust” to St. Louis. Over Memorial Day weekend (26-29 May 2017), young adults from the greater St. Louis area, from throughout the Midwest and other parts of North America will come together for this new stage of the pilgrimage.
During the month of February, two brothers were in St. Louis contacting churches of various denominations and reflecting with them on what this pilgrimage could mean. Here are some of the things they heard:
“St Louis has been shaken. But so much can come from it. We can wake up—to each other. We can look around and see one another and begin to ask how we can listen, and what there is to do. We can do good, and meet one another. Shortly after Michael Brown died in 2014, I dreamed of a meeting happening here much like the one in Pine Ridge.”“There is indeed a great deal of suffering here brought on by an ongoing history of systemic racism. I think any way that religion can offer places for people to voice that truth, to have that hurt held and to be joined with others crying out for justice is crucial at this time.”“Without trust we will not dare to be vulnerable and if we don’t dare to be vulnerable we will not take risks. It’s always a risk to leave our comfort-zone and go towards others.”“There is a lot of legitimate anger here, but we know that we cannot live off anger. I think we need to work more on articulating a positive vision, that’s why I’m glad that the pilgrimage will involve both prayer and looking for ways to work for justice.”
The initial idea of holding a stage of the pilgrimage of trust in St. Louis, which will be an ecumenical event, came from Archbishop Robert Carlson, who wrote a letter of invitation to the community after having heard of the pilgrimage of trust that took place on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in May 2013. The pilgrimage of trust to Pine Ridge, supported by the tribal council, was prepared in collaboration with young Native Americans from South Dakota. In inviting the Taizé Community, Archbishop Carlson underlined his concern for the urgent need to rebuild relations between different groups in the area, especially after the events in Ferguson.
Taizé brothers will be back in St. Louis to launch the pilgrimage in late September-early October 2016 through evenings of prayer and reflection in various parts of the St. Louis area.
The pilgrimage of trust was launched over 35 years ago by Taizé’s founder, Brother Roger, in order to foster trust between people through living and praying together, discussing and discovering common ground. Over the years, it has brought together hundreds of thousands of young adults worldwide.
For more information, contact usameetings@taize.fr
To see a video on Taizé and the pilgrimage of trust: https://vimeo.com/156482125
If you would be interested in helping to gather a group from Atlanta or nearby to go – let us know!
Article from: http://taize.fr/en_article20213.html
Monday, September 14th, prayer cancelled
There will be no prayer at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church on Monday, September 14th because of Rosh Hashanah celebrations of the Bet Haverim Congregation taking place there that night.
Please check this site or the Taize Atlanta Facebook page for updates on the prayer cancellations and location information.
100th Anniversary of Brother Roger’s Birth: May 12
Celebrate Brother Roger’s 100 Birthday on May 11 at St. Bartholomew’s
In May, young people (and young of heart) are invited, there where they live, to lead prayers and organise an act of solidarity in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Brother Roger’s birth and to put into practice his call to follow Christ.
Maundy Thursday Taize-style prayer at St. John’s
This year, St. John’s will present our Maundy Thursday service using a Taize-style format. Our choir augments the chants with the sound of hand-bells.
The service starts at 7PM on April 17th, 2014.
Please join us!
Tom Elston
Music Director
St. John’s Episcopal Church
3480 E. Main St.
College Park, GA 30337
(we’re 4 blocks from MARTA rail)
St. Bart’s Prayer ON for tonight
Dear Taize friends – we will be gathering tonight for the monthly prayer at St. Bart’s. We look forward to praying together with those of you who can come!
Report on the May 2013 Meeting in Pine Ridge
Read this wonderful article written by the Episcopal News Service about the meeting in Pine Ridge, South Dakota.
From the article:
‘Brother Alois said in the brothers’ invitation to the gathering that “we want to listen carefully to the story of the Lakota people, and listen together to what the Spirit is saying to us all in our attempt to create a world of solidarity and peace. Only by coming together beyond our differences in a climate of prayer and sharing can we find new ways forward.”’
No Taize prayer tonight at Our Lady of Lourdes
There is no gathering tonight on Memorial day.
Keep the pilgrims at the Taize gathering in Pine Ridge in your prayers today as they end their time together and travel home. I’m sure it was a blessed time.
New Taize Pilgrimage in May 2013
Taize in the Far West
On May 24th through 27th, 2013, a new stage in the “pilgrimage of trust on earth” will be held in the “Far West” of the United States. It will take place in Red Shirt, South Dakota, a tiny village at the edge of the Badlands on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The outdoor gathering will include meditative prayer together three times a day, Bible study, workshops, small group sharing, and meals together, provided by the local Lakota people. The event is meant for young people aged 18-35, a voice rarely heard in the church or in society.
The current friendship between Taizé and South Dakota began in 2009, when a group of university students from the state, including two young Lakota men, came to Taizé. This was one of the very first times when the community welcomed Native Americans to take part in the international meetings on the hill. The group extended an invitation to the community to return the visit, and a brother visited South Dakota in 2010 and again in 2011, stopping at the Pine Ridge Reservation and getting to know the Two Bulls family at Red Shirt. A larger group, including a number of Lakota and Ojibwa young people, visited Taizé for a week in 2011, and in the summer of 2012, two Lakota youth spent the summer months as volunteers on the hill.
All of these deepening contacts eventually led to an invitation to hold a gathering of the pilgrimage of trust on a reservation, where those coming from the outside would be welcomed by Native Americans; they are getting ready to offer hospitality to hundreds of participants. Christian churches of all denominations in the area are working together to prepare this meeting.
Why is such a gathering important? Whereas people from outside North America often have a romantic image of the Native American peoples drawn from films and novels, in recent times the media has increasing shown another face of life on Pine Ridge and other reservations. The story told is often one of unremitting poverty, violence, and despair. The young people there have another story to tell, one that avoids both extremes of idealization and hopelessness. In welcoming young adults from other parts of North America and beyond, they want to share their joy as well as their pain, highlighting both the priceless gifts of an age-old way of life and the great difficulties in continuing this way of life and adapting it to contemporary society.
“When we travel to visit other peoples and cultures,” said Brother Alois, “we go above all to listen. In going to Pine Ridge we want to listen carefully to the story of the Lakota people, and listen together to what the Spirit is saying to us all in our attempt to create a world of solidarity and peace. Only by coming together beyond our differences in a climate of prayer and sharing can we find new ways forward.”
For practical information, click here.
Pilgrimage to Chicago in May
In May 2012 the Taize brothers will be coming to the U.S. to facilitate a pilgrimage in Chicago. (See their invitation under the pilgrimage heading on this blog.) If you would be interested in going or are in touch with young people between 18 and 30 who might like to learn more, let us know. The Taize community plans to send a couple of representatives to Atlanta in the next months to meet with young people and share more about the pilgrimage. It would be wonderful if a group of young people from Atlanta would like to travel together and perhaps meet before hand to prepare.
Taizé Atlanta 
You must be logged in to post a comment.