Taize has come to be known as a style of worship, based on contemplative silence and prayer songs. Taize is the name of a small ecumenical monastic community in the Burgundy region of France, just north of Cluny. The monastic movement began in 1940, when Brother Roger arrived in Taize, finding a small village without even a road, no telephone and no running water. He was welcomed into the village community by a small group of elderly monks. Gradually, Brother Roger brought other monks to Taize. These monks had a youthful, vibrant presence, and under Brother Roger�s leadership, the community developed the Taize style of worship which has become world-renowned.

By 1950, hundreds of young adults from all over the world were making pilgrimages to Taize. In Brother Roger�s words, �The pilgrimage does not seek to organize the young adults centered on Taize, but encourages them to be peacemakers and to bring about reconciliation in their own neighborhoods, in their cities or villages, in their parish communities, together with people of all generations, from children to old people.�

Today, hundreds of thousands of people come to stay at Taize village. They live into the daily life of the community, which is based on a simply structured routine of prayer at morning, midday and evening. This prayer includes simple prayer song, psalms, Bible readings, silence and spoken intercessory prayers.

Throughout the vast worship space, built in 1962 and enlarged in 1990, symbolic candlelight is used; seating is oriented toward an obvious visual symbol. The room is filled with icons illuminated by the candles. In addition to worship, classes and counseling are offered. During their stay at the village, many spend extended time in silence.

It is often quite a challenge to incorporate the Taize style of worship into another setting. It is important to keep in mind that we cannot always copy exactly from another setting and what works in one place will not necessarily work in another. Worship leaders would be well advised to incorporate parts of the Taize worship into a way that adapts to their own community life. One way to do this is to introduce a Taize prayer song during communion.

At St. Paul�s Cathedral, in Oklahoma City, Taize services have been offered for about 10 years on an ongoing basis. At first, the community offered a modified Taize style service, with readings some Taize prayer songs and times of silence, using that part as the Ministry of the Word. This was followed by a Holy Eucharist. The thinking behind using this particular structure was that the people of St. Paul�s would adapt more readily to the contemplative style if we attached a little bit of contemplation to something more familiar, like Holy Eucharist.

After trying this structure for a number of years, it was decided that the community had ample time in which to try out the contemplative style and that the people now knew whether or not this worship style would fit with their own worship frame of mind. We then shifted the service to be more in alignment with worship that is offered in the Taize monastic community; namely, an hour of prayer song, Bible readings, silence and intercessory prayer, with no Eucharist. Since that decision was made, the attendance has become more consistent. It does not, and probably never will, draw large numbers of people. However, contemplative prayer in general, does not draw large numbers in most venues. For those who come to the services, however, they find profound peace and often report that they leave the services having been healed, to some extent, in the contemplative silence.

Music from Taize is readily available from GIA.