Taizé
Community holds ecumenical meeting in Prague
(Vatican Radio) Young people from around the world have
descended on the Czech capital, Prague for a five day ecumenical meeting of the
Taizé Community. Tens of thousands of young adults are joining in the next step
of the “pilgrimage of trust on earth” initiated by the Taizé Community founder,
Brother Roger at the end of the 1970s.
A city of a
thousand towers and a thousand steeples at the heart of Europe is hosting
the meeting from 29 December to 2 January: a time for prayer, reflection and
communion among young people from many different nations and faith traditions.
The young people who have come to Prague are being hosted by the people and
local church communities in and around the historic city.
Each year, more than
100,000 young adults from around the world make pilgrimages to Taizé, an
ecumenical monastic order of Protestant and Catholic brothers from more than
thirty countries whose Community is located in Taize’, in Burgundy,
France.
Founded in 1940 by
Brother Roger Schütz, a Reformed Protestant,
Taizé also hosts annual ecumenical meetings in Europe as an opportunity for
prayer, Bible study, and communal work.
During his pastoral
visit to Turkey this past November, Pope Francis highlighted the importance of
Taizé during a visit with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of
Constantinople at Saint George’s Church in Istanbul.
In his speech, Pope
Francis spoke about the search for full communion between the Churches and
cited three "voices" calling in particular, for unity: the poor,
victims of conflict and young people. Speaking of youth, he said:
“the
young today implore us to make progress towards full communion. I think for
example of the many Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant youth who come together
at meetings organized by the Taizé community. They do not do this because they
are not aware of the differences which still separate us, but because they are
able to see beyond them; they are able to embrace what is really important and
what already unites us.”
The Pope’s words will
no doubt be resonating firmly in the minds and prayers of those young people at
this year’s Taizé meeting in Prague... an encounter that comes at the close of
one year, breathing fresh life, and hope, into the new year to come.
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