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Category: Memorials

I have seen no press coverage of this in the US.

But to us Church folks, this is a BIG DEAL.
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BBC Online
Founder of Taize stabbed.

The 90-year-old founder of the French-based Taize Christian ecumenical community has been stabbed to death at a prayer service.

Police detained a woman after the assault on Swiss-born Roger Schutz, who was known as Brother Roger.

Around 2,500 young people were at the Reconciliation church in Burgundy at the time of the attack.

Brother Roger founded the community during World War II to provide refuge to people of all Christian churches.

Brother Alois, 51, nominated by Brother Roger as his successor, was returning from the World Youth Day jamboree in Cologne to take his place, a community spokesman said.

Taize unites members of several Christian denominations from some 30 countries and attracts tens of thousands of young people each year for prayers and meditation.
...
Pope Benedict XVI, due to travel to Cologne on Thursday for World Youth Day, said he was particularly dismayed at news of Brother Roger's death as he had received "a moving letter from him" only this week.

Brother Roger had written to say he was sorry that he could not attend the celebrations himself because of his ill-health.

The news of the horrific death sent shockwaves through the Christian world:

German Prelate Heiner Koch said all the participants in World Youth Day were praying for "this great figure"

The president of the French Bishops' Conference, Archbishop of Bordeaux Jean-Pierre Ricard, expressed "deep grief" for the loss of "this great figure of a researcher and witness of God, impassioned by unity among Christians and reconciliation"

The Church of England's Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, said it was an " indescribable shock" to lose "one of the best-loved Christian leaders of our time"

The Bishop of Manchester, the Right Reverend Nigel McCulloch, who had personal links with Brother Roger, described him as "one of the great visionaries of our time - a man of love and reconciliation who inspired young people all over the world to pray and to know God".
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/4158886.stm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How Taize changed the church
By Steve Tomkins
Church historian

The stabbing of a 90-year-old monk would be extraordinary at any time. But Brother Roger, the founder of Taize who was killed on Tuesday, leaves a legacy which is felt in churches all over the world.

The influence of the Taize community on the church the UK and throughout the world has been pretty remarkable.

A monastic community in a small village in Burgundy, it has never advertised, or recruited, or marketed its style of worship. But all over Britain, and throughout the world, there are churches running weekly Taize services, or who incorporate its style and approach into services.

This is simply because since Brother Roger Schutz founded the community during the Second World War, Christians have dropped in, been wowed, and spread the good news abroad. Up to 5,000 people a week visit the brothers, who number only 100.

The emphasis of its style is on silence, light, and above all the meditative weaving together of prayer and music.

Taize is also deeply committed to religious unity, and although its founders were all Protestants, it drew on various Christian traditions. Pope John XXIII called it "That little springtime", and Catholic churches have widely adopted the Taize approach. [Taize is not ROman Catholic.]

Brother Roger first started the community in 1940 as a sanctuary for wartime refugees, including Jews and later German POWs. He only prayed alone in his room or the nearby woods, not wanting to pressurise non-Christian guests.

Roger and some Christian friends took monastic vows in 1949, and within years Taize had become a magnet for young travellers. The brothers all work for a living, and do not accept donations.

The most characteristic - and copied - aspect of Taize worship is their kind of song-prayer sandwich. The leader says a short prayer, then the congregation sings a short chorus, such as:

O Lord, hear my prayer,
O Lord, hear my prayer,
When I call, answer me.

And then they sustain the last note, or continue humming, as the leader says the next prayer. This combination, say the brothers, "can form a kind of 'pillar of fire' at the heart of the prayer".

Bible readings from the Psalms are often treated the same way, a chorus being sung after each verse.

Another characteristic of Taize is stretches of silence. A prayer service may have a ten-minute silence in the middle. The brothers explain the reason for this: "If with a childlike trust we let Christ pray silently within us, then one day we shall discover that the depths of our being are inhabited by a Presence."

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