Skip to content
  • About
    • Explore AFTE
    • Board of Directors
    • News & Events
    • Contact AFTE
  • The John Wesley Fellowship
    • About the Fellowship
    • Directory of Fellows
    • Featured Fellows
    • Sample Publications by Fellows
    • Fellowship Podcasts
  • Opportunities
    • John Wesley Fellowship Application
    • International Teaching Teams and Collaborative Research Project
    • Collaborative Research Project Application
    • International Teaching Teams Application
  • Resources
    • Catalyst Publications
    • Catalyst Publications by Category
    • Photo Library
    • Videos
  • Kingdom Building
    • Give
    • Prayer
  • About
    • Explore AFTE
    • Board of Directors
    • News & Events
    • Contact AFTE
  • The John Wesley Fellowship
    • About the Fellowship
    • Directory of Fellows
    • Featured Fellows
    • Sample Publications by Fellows
    • Fellowship Podcasts
  • Opportunities
    • John Wesley Fellowship Application
    • International Teaching Teams and Collaborative Research Project
    • Collaborative Research Project Application
    • International Teaching Teams Application
  • Resources
    • Catalyst Publications
    • Catalyst Publications by Category
    • Photo Library
    • Videos
  • Kingdom Building
    • Give
    • Prayer
  • About
    • Explore AFTE
    • Board of Directors
    • News & Events
    • Contact AFTE
  • The John Wesley Fellowship
    • About the Fellowship
    • Directory of Fellows
    • Featured Fellows
    • Sample Publications by Fellows
    • Fellowship Podcasts
  • Opportunities
    • John Wesley Fellowship Application
    • International Teaching Teams and Collaborative Research Project
    • Collaborative Research Project Application
    • International Teaching Teams Application
  • Resources
    • Catalyst Publications
    • Catalyst Publications by Category
    • Photo Library
    • Videos
  • Kingdom Building
    • Give
    • Prayer
  • About
    • Explore AFTE
    • Board of Directors
    • News & Events
    • Contact AFTE
  • The John Wesley Fellowship
    • About the Fellowship
    • Directory of Fellows
    • Featured Fellows
    • Sample Publications by Fellows
    • Fellowship Podcasts
  • Opportunities
    • John Wesley Fellowship Application
    • International Teaching Teams and Collaborative Research Project
    • Collaborative Research Project Application
    • International Teaching Teams Application
  • Resources
    • Catalyst Publications
    • Catalyst Publications by Category
    • Photo Library
    • Videos
  • Kingdom Building
    • Give
    • Prayer
  • Home
  • >
  • Christian Formation and Discipleship
  • >
  • What Might the Taizé Community Teach Wesleyans?

More Articles

Loading...
Our King Carries a Towel, Not a Scepter
The world watched last September as millions mourned the death of Queen Elizabeth. Subsequently, many watched with great interest as Charles was enthroned as...
August 18, 2023

Author:

  • Rob Haynes
Our Postmodern Moment, Part 3: The Biblical Metanarrative
This is the final installment of a three-part article that I’ve been invited to write on the question of how Christians might engage our...
Perspectives
/
August 9, 2023

Author:

  • J. Richard Middleton
Jesus: Not Superhero but Friend
I preached recently and was given the Easter Emmaus text (Luke 24:13–35), a story I have never really found interesting. Having to say something...
Conversations
/
August 7, 2023

Author:

  • Samantha L. Miller
An Education or a Diploma?
Are you seeking a diploma, or are you seeking an education? So many of you tell me you’re here because graduating from here will...
Conversations
/
June 5, 2023

Author:

  • Samantha L. Miller
On Reading a Book’s Cover
Living in the age of TikTok, sound bytes, emojis, and GIFs one might think the practice of reading a book is antiquated and unnecessary....
Conversations
/
May 29, 2023

Author:

  • Tammie Grimm
Our Postmodern Moment, Part 2: The Biblical Metanarrative
This is part 2 of a three-part essay in which I’ve been invited to revisit the analysis that Brian Walsh and I made in...
Perspectives
/
May 24, 2023

Author:

  • J. Richard Middleton

What Might the Taizé Community Teach Wesleyans?

Conversations
/
January 6, 2020

Last January I had the privilege of coteaching a course on the ecumenical community of Taizé for St. Mary’s Ecumenical Institute in Baltimore with my dad, Michael J. Gorman, and Brother John, a member of the Taizé community since the 1970s. To the extent that someone has heard of Taizé, she or he probably knows the music the community uses in its daily worship. Countless editions of these simple, repetitive chants, or songs, have been published around the world, and some of the most popular among them have found their way into denominational resources. Several Taizé chants, for example, are scattered across The United Methodist Hymnal and two major United Methodist hymnal supplements, The Faith We Sing and Worship & Song. In some cities, there also are regular gatherings for prayer services in the style of Taizé.

One’s knowledge of—and judgments about—Taizé’s music often substitutes for one’s knowledge of—and judgments about—the Taizé community. This is unfortunate, even if the knowledge and judgment are positive, because Taizé is much more than its music. It is a community of about a hundred brothers who live together in a small French town and commit to a rule of life. The brothers come from around the world, and they represent a number of Christian traditions. They seek to be a “parable of community,” a sign of Christ’s peace and reconciliation for the church universal and for the world. Since the late 1960s, the community has concentrated its ministry on what it calls “the youth,” who are mostly what those in the US would call young adults. Thousands of youth, as well as older adults and some children, make pilgrimages to Taizé every year. Roughly ten thousand join the community for Holy Week and Easter. As I write this, the brothers are leading their annual European meeting in Wroclaw, Poland. Last year’s meeting in Madrid, Spain, drew fifteen thousand youth for five days of prayer and Bible study.

As well as being a community ministering to global youth for the last fifty years, Taizé has been a community of writers from the very beginning. Brother Roger Schutz, Taizé’s founder, published numerous books, all in a very simple style. I am particularly fond of his Power (or Dynamic) of the Provisional (Pilgrim Press, 1969), in which Brother Roger emphasizes that the strength and faithfulness of a Christian community do not reside in its permanence but rather in its visibility as a community that belongs to Jesus Christ. It is a profound message that institutions like The United Methodist Church still need to hear. Tragically, Brother Roger was murdered in the community’s Church of the Reconciliation in 2005. His successor, Brother Alois, has followed Brother Roger’s model for writing profound, accessible texts (you can find his 2020 letter here).

Other members of the community have also been prolific authors. Pierre-Yves Emery has explored topics in historical theology including the life of Bernard of Clairvaux, the Eucharist in 17th century French Reformed theologies, and the psalms in Augustine. Max Thurian served on the World Council of Churches’ Faith and Order Commission and helped write one of the most important ecumenical texts of the last century, Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry (available online here). Thurian was a liturgical theologian, and the great Methodist theologian Geoffrey Wainwright has told me Thurian was influential on his own early work. Most recently, Brother John, originally from Philadelphia, has written a series of books on a range of theological topics, including ecclesiology, creation, Holy Saturday, and divine wrath. Brother John’s books are challenging and sophisticated but not technical. His Friends in Christ: Paths to a New Understanding of Church (Orbis Books, 2012) was required reading for last January’s Taizé course.

Why should Methodists and Wesleyans pay attention to the ministry and writings of Taizé? I conclude with two reasons. First is that Taizé manages to be a community that, on the one hand, is missionally driven and, on the other hand, does not succumb to mere pragmatism. This is not an easy balancing act, especially for people whose founder spoke eloquently of the power of the provisional. To a significant degree, Taizé’s corporate life revolves around its ministry with young people, but it does not simply find “what works” or incorporate the latest trends to connect with its market segment. Those interested in Christian ministry have much to learn from how Taizé works with youth. There is no element of entertainment, nothing flashy. Simple prayers, whose texts are often quotations or paraphrases of Scripture, daily Bible study, silence, attentive listening, and service through daily chores are the basic pattern of how Taizé welcomes youth.

Second, Taizé offers to shake us from our ecclesial slumber. Its devotion to lived communal ecumenism challenges the easy assumption that structural division among Christians is inevitable and offers the hope of a courageous step into a life of reconciliation that, eschatologically, Jesus Christ himself assures us is the ecumenical future of the church.

About the Author

  • Mark Gorman

    Mark Gorman

    Gorman is a John Wesley Fellow, an elder in the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference, and the pastor of Calvary UMC in Mt. Airy, MD. He is on the faculty of St. Mary’s Ecumenical Institute in Baltimore, where he teaches theology and worship. He also has taught United Methodist polity for Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC.

About AFTE

  • About Foundation
  • About The Fellowship
  • Board of Directors
  • Featured Fellows
  • Directory of Fellows

Publications

  • Publications by Fellows
  • Podcast
  • Recent Publications
  • News & Events

Participate

  • Give
  • Apply for Fellowship
  • Contact Us
Facebook Youtube
  • © 2020 A Foundation for Theological Education
  • Developed & Managed by Tiny Giant