Sisters of Bethany

T A I Z E

scanned poster from Cathedral explaining Taize Services
e-mail: michael.tristram@portsmouthcathedral.org.uk

Dates for 2010
31st January28th February28th March
25th April30th May27th June25th July
29th August26th September31st October
28th November 26th December[time to be confirmed]

Please sit anywhere (in Taize many sit on the floor but there are chairs provided)
and use the time before the start of the service for quiet reflection and preparation.
Please sit and/or kneel throughout the service whichever is preferred
Please be careful with any candles and be alert to those around you for each others‘ safety.

Thanks to a recent small bequest the Cathedral are now able to supply the Taize chant books.
The words of these and other songs may help your time of prayer and meditation
Please leave the chant books behind after the service for use in future months.

CONCLUSION
There is no formal ending to these services.
Please leave quietly when you wish.
There is no offertory but your generous response to the retiring collection
via the plates by the font or at the door as you leave will be greatly appreciated

photograph of Brother Roger and his adopted child

Brother Roger, the 90-year-old founder of the French-based Taize Christian ecumenical community was stabbed to death at a prayer service on Tuesday 16 August 2005. Brother Roger harbored Jewish refugees during the Nazi occupation of France during World War II, moving to Taize in 1940 with plans to found a monastery. He then built the ecumenical Taize Community with a mission to reconcile all denominations of Christians and promote dialogue and peace. Brother Roger was born of a Swiss Protestant father and a French Catholic mother.

Brother Alois, 51, nominated by Brother Roger as his successor, returned from the World Youth Day jamboree in Cologne to take his place.

Around 2,500 young people were at the Reconciliation church in Burgundy at the time of the attack. Taize unites members of several Christian denominations from some 30 countries and attracts tens of thousands of young people each year for prayers and meditation.

"Brother Roger was one of the best loved Christian leaders of our time" Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury

The Bishop of Manchester, the Right Reverend Nigel McCulloch, who had personal links with Brother Roger, described him as "one of the great visionaries of our time - a man of love and reconciliation who inspired young people all over the world to pray and to know God".

Police detained a woman after the assault on Swiss-born Roger Schutz. Some of those at evening prayers on Tuesday are reported to have overpowered a Romanian woman after Brother Roger was stabbed. She said she had tried for several months to contact Brother Roger - who was no longer granting private meetings.

To access the Taize Community Website:
http://www.taize.fr/en