For an increasing number of persons searching for a deeper spirituality, the
word Taizé evokes a sense of peace and comfort. In fact,
Taizé is an ecumenical community of brothers located in a small
French village whose monastic life turns on three poles: prayer, work and
hospitality. Out of that context, the songs of Taizé have been
created to facilitate the worship of God and the healing work of reconciliation
among all people. The world has gratefully received this music and way of
worship as a beautiful gift that transcends our differences and brings us
together as the one family of God.
For persons at West End who dreamed of offering a healing worship service for
its members and anyone in the broader community who sought it, the road was
first paved by our Youth Ministry team about a decade ago. Also, each week the
Sacred Journeys Sunday school class uses songs from Taizé followed by
guided and silent meditation as a preface to study and conversation. Early in
2004, with Sally Ahner's leadership, we incorporated the music and worship style
of Taizé in a unique service of prayer and healing, where persons may
choose to be anointed with oil and receive hands-on healing prayer.
The response to these services has confirmed what many around the world
affirm—that through Taizé worship, God's spirit often works
to quiet the troubled, to comfort the hurting and heal the broken.
To learn more, or to be notified about upcoming services, please email
. To learn more
about the Sacred Journeys Sunday school class, please contact
or visit on
Sunday mornings at 9:45 am in Room 306.
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Our Services of Prayer and Healing combine a relatively new form of worship
with very old ritual to create a time of quiet and calm, which is focused on
healing for our mind, bodies, spirit and world. Remaining true to the form of
prayer worship developed in the community of Taize in recent decades, our
services include singing, silence, reading of scripture and spoken prayer. The
addition of the ancient tradition of anointing with oil and the laying on of
hands enhances the time of prayer and brings the clear intention of healing.
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Singing is one of the most essential elements of Taize style worship. Short
songs sung in both English and Latin, repeated again and again, give it a
meditative character. Using just a few words they express a basic reality of
faith, quickly grasped by the mind. As the words are sung over many times, this
reality gradually penetrates the whole being. Meditative singing thus becomes a
way of listening to God. It allows everyone to take part in a time of prayer
together and to remain together in attentive waiting on God, without having to
fix the length of time too exactly. These songs also sustain personal prayer.
Through them, little by little, our being finds an inner unity in God. They can
continue in the silence of our hearts when we are at work, speaking with others
or resting. In this way prayer and daily life are united. They allow us to keep
on praying even when we are unaware of it, in the silence of our hearts.
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Silence is a critical element in this form of worship. When we try to express
in words our thoughts of communion with God our minds quickly come up short.
Although many of us would love to hear God's voice thundering from the sky as in
those ancient Bible stories, we know that is not likely today. More often than
not is in times of quiet and stillness that we can hear the whisper of God
inside us. These services intentionally plan periods of silence after preparing
our minds through the meditative songs with the hope for a stronger connection
to The Divine.
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Reading from the Psalms and Scripture places us in the communion of all
believers. Jesus prayed the age-old prayers of his people from the Psalms and
Christians have always found them to be a wellspring of life. Reading anchors
these services in rich Christian tradition and in powerful words of faith.
