The Charism of Taizé

Part 1, Music, Ecumenism, Internationalism, and Youth

I've mentioned I spent a week with the Taizé community this past summer. I was on retreat there with two dear friends, Hannah and Jojo. Alert readers of Hunting Magic Eels will recognize Hannah and Jojo from the chapter on Celtic Christianity. 

I love visiting different faith communities and traditions. One of the things I try to discern in experiencing a new church, community, denomination, or tradition is its special charism, its distinctive spiritual gift. 

For example, when you look at the start of a monastic movement the founder and founding generation had a special gift and calling. That gift and calling is the charism of the movement, its unique anointing by the Holy Spirit to bring some particular aspect of the kingdom of God into view. 

So while I spent time with the Taizé community I pondered its charism, its unique spiritual gift. 

In this post I'll share the widely known charisms of Taizé, and in three posts to follow two gifts less talked about. 

Many people will recognize four distinctive charisms of Taizé:

1. Music

2. Ecumenism

3. Internationalism

4. Mission to young people

If people know anything about Taizé, it tends to be the music. Taizé is known for songs based upon simple phrases, often from Scripture, set to lovely, haunting melodies, repeated over and over. Taizé music brings the meditative aspects of ancient chant into the modern world. You can listen to a sample here, and the music can be found online and across all music streaming services.

Beyond music, Taizé is an ecumenical monastic movement. The vibe of Taizé is "catholic," but Brother Roger, the founder of the community, started the movement as a Reformed Presbyterian. And yet, later in life, Brother Roger received the Eucharist from two Catholic popes, and participated in the Eucharist daily at Taizé. This is a bit of a mystery, given that non-Catholics are not to participate in the Catholic Eucharist. This is just one illustration of the denominational blurring you experience at Taizé, where Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant elements intermix and faith traditions from around the world worship together. Overcoming the factionalism within Christianity was important to Brother Roger, and his ecumenical spirit is alive and well in the community.

A third spiritual gift of Taizé is its international and global embrace. Everyday at Taizé the Scripture readings and songs are shared in multiple languages. If you pick up a Taizé songbook, most of the songs won't be in English. This can be difficult for those attending Taizé. You can't just jump in and sing all the songs full voice. Most of the songs aren't in your language and it will take a few days to learn them. Some won't be mastered by the end of the week. The week we were at Taizé many Germans were visiting, so the song choices for the week leaned toward German. And while there is a bit of desolation with struggling to sing every song, Taizé is one of those places where you get to experience Revelation 7.9: "After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands."

A fourth charism of Taizé is its focus on youth. Taizé is mainly for those aged 15-29. Adults are welcome at Taizé, but only during certain weeks of the year, not in large groups, and only once a year. Taizé is mainly for the thousands of young people who come every year. I'll talk more about this in a coming post.

This list of charisms isn't exhaustive. Those who have been to Taizé will likely want to add their own observations about what they think are the distinctive spiritual gifts of the Taizé community. I have my own thoughts about what could be added to the list. I'll share three of those thoughts in the coming posts.