Taize

The Taizé Community is an ecumenical Christian men's monastic order in Taizé, Saône-et-Loire, Burgundy, France. Even though I have heard about it before, TTC’s Day of Prayer 2007 (24^th August) was my first experience to attend and to be involved in Taize worship. It was a privilege because the worship is led by a brother from Taize, brother Gishlain, who has been practicing Taize for many years.

The worship was very meaningful to me. I think silence and repetition are some of the strengths that Taize has in helping people to meet God in their worship. Studying at TTC, I find that hustle and bustle is my biggest enemy in nurturing my spiritual life. I believe this is also true for most people. Sometimes I feel that I do not have enough time to be silent, reflect on my life, and listen to God’s voice. I recall what Socrates has said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” I suppose Taize is a very helpful worship style in doing so. In our churches today, sometimes I do feel that the pastors or the song leaders talk too much. In fact, instead of helping the congregation to worship God, sometimes they are actually disturbing them. In my observation, there is not enough silent time in our worship today. A silence for people just to reflect on their lives and the word of God.

It is also interesting to notice that, in Taize worship, the leader does not talk much. In fact, just before the worship began, brother Gishlain mentioned that he was not the leader. He was just a servant. He stressed, “We all are just servants of the Lord. The Holy Spirit is the leader of the worship.” I guess this understanding is lacking in our churches today.

As mentioned, repetition is also one of Taize’s strengths. Taize’s songs are very short and simple. Most of the lyrics, if not all, are taken from the Bible. During the worship, each song is normally sung repeatedly within three minutes. Some people might not be able to appreciate this. But I find this is very helpful to engage my mind with God’s word. To say it in a different way, it is something like a brainwash. While for some people brainwashing has a negative connotation, I think it is not necessarily bad. In fact, whether we like it or not, we are bombarded and brainwashed by advertisements, TV, newspapers, magazines, movies and music all the times. Our world view is shaped by all these without our consciousness.

Having said all the good things about Taize, I do believe that there is no perfect worship style. I do hope to attend Taize worship again so that I will be able to see what their weaknesses are. I really want to find out and to understand more about their theological foundations of doing their worship. What I have known so far is that the theme of unity and reconciliation is central in their theology.

For me, the theological foundations are much more important than the worship style itself. Certain worship styles might be attractive, or even helpful, for some of us. But if we have no strong theological foundations, or we even do not know what we are doing and why we are doing so, we have totally failed.

If you are interested to know more about Taize, please visit www.taize.fr. By the way, I am actually hoping to go to Taize next year for my Field Education. I am still looking for sponsors. Please let me know if you are willing to sponsor me. ^_^