Wednesday, October 5th, 2005
Some of my interview with Jenny Swan from ABC Central Queensland, is online in an article by Kim Lester: Church for those who don’t like church. I was in at ABC Coast FM when the producer Anita suggested I do a phone hook up with Rockhampton next. Jenny was keen to explore alternatives to spending lot of money on cathedrals and other purpose-built worship spaces.
Part of my thinking on this was stimulated by an experience I had when training for ministry. We had a Taize service in the park - in a rotunda much like the one pictured here. The atmosphere was great. But afterwards we realised that the content of the service had made no reference at all to the environment we were in. We’d just translated an inside experience to the park.
So what would an ‘in-the-park’ experience be like if it was designed for that environment? There might be more awareness of the sounds of silence for a start. And perhaps more use of the metaphors of the greenery.
It’s all there at ABC Capricornia.
Tags: ABC Radio, alt worship, Taize, Worship
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Wednesday, August 17th, 2005
The shocking news came through today - Brother Roger, the founder of Taiz� Community in France, was murdered during a worship service there. He was stabbed in the neck three times by a 36 year old woman during a worship service attended by about 2500 people.
Roger Schutz, a Protestant pastor, founded the ecumenical Taiz� community in the middle of World War II. Since the 1960s young adults have found their way to the community to share in prayer and discipleship. Brother Roger has led the way in reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants, between people of different ethnic groups, and between rich and poor. The music produced by Taiz� has enriched the contemplative worship life of the Christian church around the world.
I first came across Taize resources as a theological student in the late 1980s. I had met people who were deeply resourced by visiting the community. I had met others who were deeply paranoid about this Catholic contemplative mystic movement. For me… I appreciated being able to enjoy the presence of God, using English, French, Latin, Spanish and German languages. There’s not really a lot of difference between the Scripture in Song choruses (King James English) and the Taize chants (above languages).
I notice that the Taiz� web site is down today because of the number of people trying to access it. BBC News has the story and is calling for online tributes.
Tags: Reconciliation, Spirituality, Taize, World Events, Worship
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