The heart of the Taizé community is a community of brothers who live in eastern France, where they welcome many thousands of young people from all over the world to share in a simple community. It was founded by Br Roger, a Swiss Reformed pastor after WWII as a beacon of reconciliation

 The fundamental idea of Taizé prayer is to engage our more emotional, heart, soulful selves. The songs are sung repeatedly so that they “move out of our minds into our hearts.” Some are in Latin because it is a more neutral language, and the other we sing in English. Hearing a reading from the heart of our Christian tradition is central. Silence is a powerful practice to help us to hear God. We pray together to bring our whole world and whole selves the to God who loves us. The final blessing is usually from Br Roger.

Our regular Taizé prayer at Chalice occurs on the first Saturday of each month at 7:00pm (except in January) It generally takes around 45 minutes, and then you are invited to stay for dinner, or at least for a glass of wine.

We ask for a donation of $20 (food and wine) / $15 (food only) / $5 (low waged) to help to cover our costs.

Here’s a video from Deutsche Gramaphon explaining Taize’s music and prayer. Taize Community in France. Their website isn’t especially helpful for people who don’t know what Taize is, so here’s a link to the Wikipedia page and to a Taize playlist on Spotify. You can read a little more on the Chalice Taize page.