Join us Friday, December 31 at 6:30pm for this unique experience!
Taize’ is a town in Belgium where a non-denominational Christian community has developed a style of worship that emphasizes sung prayers which are melodic and repetitive rather than hymn-like or chanted.
During the past 50 years, Christians around the world have found peace and community in this kind of worship. In the United States, many Christian churches use Taize’ prayer, including some WELS churches and the WELS National Worship Conference.
It is possible for music and words to coexist or reside independently in the human mind. Taize’ prayer discovers and uses that. You may find that once your lips have repeated a simple line of words and music several times, that you can also harbor simultaneous yet independent thoughts. Use the sung words to join with the gathered community here and use your private thoughts to communicate with God. Perhaps your mind can find a kernel in the sung words upon which your mind can pray or mediate.
The style of Taize’ is less formal than a liturgy, while still structured. It is normal and expected that individuals may wish to stop singing during a sung prayer, perhaps for more intense reflection. It is normal for the sung prayer to build as more join and fade as more stop. The piano will lead the starting and stopping. Sing harmony if you wish. Taize’ prayer is expressive in any number of languages, and Spanish and English or any other tongue may be sung concurrently.
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