Taizé service in Indiana paves way for St. Louis Pilgrimage of Trust

Bloomington UKirk chapter joins ecumenical group in hosting event

by Gregg Brekke | Presbyterian News Service

Brother Emile from the Taizé Community in France during a Q&A session at First Presbyterian Church of Bloomington, Indiana. (Photo by Gregg Brekke)

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Forty people gathered last night for a Taizé service in the dimmed hush of the sanctuary at First Presbyterian Church of Bloomington, Indiana to pray, contemplate and be restored for the work of peace and trust building. The UKirk chapter at Indiana University sponsored the event in conjunction with an ecumenical group in Bloomington that hosted Brother Emile from the Taizé Community in France.

Brother Emile is in the U.S. promoting and planning the Pilgrimage of Trust in St. Louis that will be held over Memorial Day in 2017. Archbishop Robert Carlson of St. Louis invited the community after he heard of its Pilgrimage of Trust on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in May 2013.

In inviting the ecumenical Taizé Community, Archbishop Carlson underlined his concern for the urgent need to rebuild relations between different groups in the St. Louis area, especially after the shooting death of Michael Brown and subsequent events in Ferguson.

As one stop of the year long Pilgrimage of Trust leading to the St. Louis event, the Bloomington service concluded with a question and answer session facilitated by the Rev. Mihee Kim-Kort, UKirk Bloomington director. She was part of the May 14-23, 2016 UKirk pilgrimage to the Taizé Community where she met Brother Emile and learned of the St. Louis Pilgrimage of Trust.

Asked by Kim-Kort to reflect on the way of life experienced by those who live at and visit Taizé, Brother Emile said, “Some things in our life are very constant. The bells ring three times a day—we drop everything we’re doing… Everyone makes their way to prayer… We fill the large church; morning, noon and evening.”

Brother Emile from the Taizé Community in France prays during the service at First Presbyterian Church of Bloomington, Indiana. (Photo by Gregg Brekke)

Noting the large crowds that travel to Taizé for weeklong pilgrimages during summer months—sometimes numbering up to 4,000 young people—Brother Emile said the self-supporting monastic community engages guests in study, spiritual direction and hospitality, catering to the needs and concerns of young adults.

“What Brother Rodger [founder of the Taizé Community] discovered over the many decades he lived at Taizé—65 years of life—was the deeper you go into the mystery of Christ, the more you immerse yourself in Christ’s death and resurrection—if a group of people does that—then something of the undivided church can emerge,” said Brother Emile.

“We call all our Taizé gatherings, wherever they are, a Pilgrimage of Trust,” said Brother Emile of the Pine Ridge gathering that inspired the St. Louis invitation. “Of course, that pilgrimage is much more meaningful if it takes place where trust has broken down. Where trust has been seriously jeopardized. Or totally destroyed.”

Praising the Ferguson commission members who have welcomed the Taizé conversation as people of faith, hope and action, Brother Emile said, “We need something that can change hearts. That’s where the value of prayer matters—of coming together, to go to the source of our faith.”

Kim-Kort said her experience at Taizé “deepened the reality that the connection between identity and vocation needs to be rooted in constantly making space for Christ.”

“We entered into the rhythms of the community—prayer, hospitality, study and quiet—and all of these I believe should characterize my life, but also, ministry,” she said. “We get so wrapped up with the idea that we need more programs, events, and activities but it was really impressed on me that when I’m living my faith out every day then ministry is more of an invitation to enter into that, too, and participate in it.”

The hospitality of the Taizé Community also had an impact on Kim-Kort. “I keep thinking about hospitality—not only towards others—but towards Christ, and framing prayer and ministry in that way,” she said. “Making space for the presence of Christ through contemplation, and connecting it to the work of compassion.”

Kim-Kort hopes to attend the St. Louis Pilgrimage of Trust next May, helping to coordinate Bloomington residents who want to make the trip.

“St. Louis is a really significant place in recent history around issues of racial justice with its connection to Ferguson, and I’m looking forward to showing support to the work of the communities there,” she said. “I want to listen to the stories of struggle and hope, and intentionally enter into the work of trust and peace, and carry those experiences back with us, and let it shape the work we do here.”

The Pilgrimage of Trust was launched over 35 years ago by Taizé’s founder, Brother Roger, in order to foster trust between people through living and praying together, discussing and discovering common ground. Over the years, it has brought together hundreds of thousands of young adults worldwide.

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