Dear Friends,
On Thursday this week at 8:40 am, it will be our great pleasure to baptise 16 young people of S. Michael’s School. They have been prepared for baptism by the Revd Lynne Horwood and Dr Marla Hughes. We have included a list of their names in this Trumpet so that we can all pray for them and their families.
On Monday last week we remembered the fifth anniversary of the murder of a modern saint, Brother Roger of the Taizé Community in France, in his 90th year. And on Friday we remembered the 70th anniversary of his arrival at Taizé in 1940. Brother Roger was brought up in Switzerland, though his mother was French. In 1940, when he was 25, he felt called to leave neutral Switzerland and go and live a life of prayer for reconciliation, on the front line of the war in France. He settled in the half-deserted village of Taizé in Burgundy. Here he sheltered Jews and other refugees, and after the war, German casualties. Soon he was joined by other brothers, of all Christian traditions, and a life of service and prayer began. Now there are about 120 brothers in the Community, and some of them live in houses in some of the poorest and most troubled places on the earth.
Taizé has become an ecumenical pilgrimage centre, visited by over 100,000 people every year, mostly young, and from every part of the world. Most years the community organises a great gathering of youth in some part of the world, so that in a climate of prayer and worship, young people of many nationalities may meet and learn to trust each other.
Brother Roger was a mild, childlike figure, who had a simple and resourceful faith, a gift for language, beautiful ideas and moving prayers. His martyr’s death at the age of 90 was a sadly ironical twist and a tragic end to a remarkable career.
The worship of the Taizé community is very simple and very profound, with beautiful catchy chants and long prayerful silences. At S. Michael’s we offer Evening Prayer one Sunday night each month in the style of Taizé, and join our prayer for reconciliation with theirs. You are always welcome to join us.
May God bless you all.
Fr Peter Williams
