Did any of you do anything exciting or new during Lent? I did! I participated in a Maundy Thursday Taizé service, my first full-length Taizé style service ever, complete with supporting choir and soloists. If you have never worshipped in this style, try it! I’m sure we fell short in many ways compared to what is done in Taizé, the tiny town found in the Burgundy region of France. But I also think we got a lot of things right. We even had one point in the final chance where we had choir members singing in French and English simultaneously! Multilingual singing is a common occurrence among the pilgrims who flock to France from countries around the world.
I must give credit to several people: Rev. Les Oliver at Central UMC in Rogers provided me with Taizé scores and an icon for an earlier service that served as a trial run. Rev. Jeanne Williams at First UMC Bella Vista had the vision to do this, along with great ideas on how to execute it. When you are in sync with your clergy, great things can happen! Below are some pictures of the service, shared by Amy O. Fulton, and a link to the service on YouTube, posted by church Webmaster Sarah Charlsen.
The entire service is available on YouTube. I apologize that the songs were inadequately miked. There is silence near the end of the service. Although it’s an important part of the actual experience, you may wish to skip it.
Maundy Thursday Taizé worked for us. Have you experienced Taizé? Would you be interested in trying this in your church?
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