Tonight’s Wednesday gathering will be a Taize service. We’re providing the following information with the order of worship:

About the Taizé service:
The Taizé service is a meditative prayer service. Please enter the service in silence. The service includes meditative singing, periods of silence, scripture reading, icons, and candles. Below you will find excerpts from the website of the Taizé community in France on a couple of the Taizé service elements.

Meditative singing
Singing is one of the most essential elements of worship. Short songs, 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.

Icons in worship
Icons contribute to the beauty of worship. They are like windows open on the realities of the Kingdom of God, making them present in our prayer on earth.
Although icons are images, they are not simply illustrations or decorations. [Like the cross,] they are symbols of the incarnation, a presence which offers to the eyes the spiritual message that the Word addresses to the ears.

Taken from http://www.taizé.fr, edited by John Collins.

You can learn more at: www.taize.fr

Posted by Jenny