Are you busy? Rushed? Hassled? Our days of quiet reflection and our Taizé services offer a time to pause, think, and pray, a time to just be.
Days of Quiet Reflection
Usually we offer a couple of dates each year for days of quiet reflection, please contact us for future dates.
Taizé
A simple service using candles, silence and reflection. Please contact us for dates.
Since my youth, I think that I have never lost the intuition that community life could be a sign that God is love, and love alone. Gradually the conviction took shape in me that it was essential to create a community with men determined to give their whole life and who would always try to understand one another and be reconciled, a community where kindness of heart and simplicity would be at the centre of everything.
Brother Roger: “God is love alone”
The Taizé community is an ecumenical monastic order with a strong devotion to peace and justice through prayer and meditation. The 100-strong community of Roman Catholic and Protestant monks is drawn from 30 countries across the world.
It was founded in 1940 by Roger Louis Schutz-Marsauche (known as ‘Brother Roger’). The 90-year-old monk died in August 2005 after being stabbed during a prayer service.
Today Taizé is one of the world’s most important sites of Christian pilgrimage. Each year tens of thousands of young pilgrims flock to the small village of Taizé in central France to share in the community’s way of life.
Prayer and silence are at the heart of the Taizé experience. Young people from every corner of the globe are encouraged to live out the Christian gospel in a spirit of joy, simplicity and reconciliation.
Ecumenism (a movement promoting Christian unity among Churches) is the key to Taizé’s appeal, making it a magnet for people of many different cultures and traditions.
We seek to hold a Taizé service in Swaythling from time to time, to provide space for prayer, reflection, stillness and silence, as many people find this way of worship helps them connect with God.