Every week from April to November young people from all over the world arrive in their thousands at the village of Taizé in France. They come to spend a week in the ecumenical community founded by Brother Roger which has now grown to more than a hundred brothers from Catholic or Protestant backgrounds and from twenty-five different countries.

There the young visitors spend time in Bible study, discussion and reflection and helping with practical tasks. Three times a day the work, the discussions and the Bible study all come to a stop as the bells ring out and the entire community gathers in the church to pray and to sing the distinctive Taizé chants. These consists of a just few words sung again and again. Their simple message quickly reaches the mind, then the heart, then the whole being.

At the centre of the prayer is a long period of silence. It is a time to simply remain in the presence of God. Silence, not words, is the heart of prayer and the brothers of the Taizé community are often impressed at how long young people will remain the church, sometimes for hours on end, in silence and in meditative singing.

Meditative prayer in the style of the Taizé community has become something of a phenomenon and spread right around the world. The key elements are psalms, readings, silence and intercessions as well as “singing that never ends and that continues in the silence of one’s heart.“. There are no sermons, no lectures, no doctrine. It is this simplicity that has attracted so many young people in search of meaning and spiritual growth.

It was a privilege to be part of the two Taizé evenings of prayer held in our parish on 20 November 2007 and 15 April 2008. Preparations started as far back as March 2007 when a small group got together to learn some of the Taizé chants. These songs are written to be sung by ordinary people rather than trained singers and in a surprisingly short time the group found itself singing in four parts. To build up their confidence and to make the chants familiar to other parishioners they decided to sing them from time to time before Sunday morning Mass. The reaction was encouraging and eventually a date was originally set for an evening of prayer at the end of October 2007. It so happened, however, that some of the brothers from the Taizé community in France were visiting Durban in November. The parish event was therefore postponed in order to learn more by attending the prayer evening led by the brothers at St Anthony’s parish.

As the first of what it is hoped will be a series of Taizé evenings, publicity was deliberately low-key for the parish event on 20 November. There was nonetheless a surprisingly good turn-out. Despite a slightly nervous start, the singing, the readings, the way the church was decorated and all combined to create an atmosphere of peacefulness and prayer. The many people who stayed on for a cup of tea afterwards were enthusiastic about the experience and keen that it should be repeated. A number of them wanted to learn the chants and the need to create an opportunity for them to do so was one of several useful lessons learned that evening.

We held our second Taizé evening on 15 April (see pictures). This time, however, in line with Taizé’s ecumenical approach, we invited members of the local Anglican church. It was a lovely evening.

The intention is that such evenings of prayer be repeated occasionally on a slightly larger scale and more regularly on a smaller scale.

In the words of Brother Roger, “To celebrate such an inclusive common prayer, only a few people are needed, sometimes just two or three young adults. Already, through them, a sign of Christ becomes visible.”

For more details please contact the parish secretary.