Taize Community Leader Calls Christian Youth To Unity

"Let us make steps towards the visible unity of Christians. In this way the Gospel will find its full effectiveness and the word of God will speak more to the people today," Brother Alois Leser

SLEMAN, Indonesia (UCAN) - During his recent three-day visit to Yogyakarta, Brother Alois Leser, head of the ecumenical Taize community in France, encouraged young Christians to make Christian unity visible.

"Let us make steps towards the visible unity of Christians. In this way the Gospel will find its full effectiveness and the word of God will speak more to the people today," the 53-year-old German Catholic monk told about 500 young Catholics and Protestants from Indonesia and East Timor on the first day of his Nov. 23-25 visit.

The young people attended sessions in the 800-meter-square hall of Jesuit-run University of Sanata Dharma in Sleman, Yogyakarta, 405 kilometers east of Jakarta. They sat on mats in front of a small altar with a cross and lit candles on it. Also attending the sessions were Belgian Taize Brother Ghislain and Indonesian Taize Brother Francesco.

"Let us not be afraid of the future. ... God makes us creators with him. He gives us the courage to begin, even where circumstances are not favorable. He sends us out with our human frailty to pass on, through our lives, a mystery of hope," Brother Alois said.

Indonesia was the next-to-last stop on the itinerary of his first Asian tour since being elected to head the Taize community in 2005. He arrived first in Bangkok, after which he went to Hong Kong and Seoul before coming to Yogyakarta. From here he went to Cambodia.

Brother Alois pointed out that he and fellow Taize brothers decided to come to Indonesia because of "our concerns that this country was hit by natural disasters such as the tsunami and earthquakes, and this situation has strengthened the relations between our community and this country."

Earthquakes hit Yogyakarta and Central Java in mid-2006 and an undersea earthquake and the resultant tsunami devastated Aceh province, western Indonesia, on Dec. 26, 2004.

The Nov. 23 session began with opening speeches by Archbishop Ignatius Suharyo of Semarang and Brother Alois, followed by a one-hour Taize-style prayer session. Such sessions typically include repetitive singing or chanting of simple songs, meditation and reflection on Gospel passages around the cross. Lighting is usually provided by candles or kept low.

The next day, Brother Alois led spiritual reflection and a prayer session. On the last day, he and his two confreres visited Sacred Heart of Jesus shrine in Ganjuran with some of the participants.

Yogyakarta vicariate, part of Semarang archdiocese, serves Yogyakarta city and the surrounding areas.

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Speaking to UCA News on Nov. 22, Brother Francesco said the theme of the prayer sessions, Pilgrimage of Faith on Earth, has special meaning for Taize brothers as they go from one country to another spreading the seeds of faith. "We spread the seeds through our prayer sessions and social action," he said, "and let young people grow from these seeds."

A participant at the sessions, Margareth Aritonang, 25, told UCA News on Nov. 26 that found a sense of deep prayer in the repetitive Taize-style prayers and songs.

Archbishop Suharyo, in his opening talk, invited the young people to make the prayer sessions an occasion to unite by "thinking about others, not only yourselves, so that you can share your lives."

Brother Roger Schutz, from a Protestant background, founded the Taize community in the 1940s in Taize, a village in France, to work and pray for world peace. The community today has about 100 members from diverse Christian traditions and about 30 countries. The brothers work for a living and do not accept donations. A woman stabbed Brother Roger to death in 2005, at the age of 90, and Brother Alois succeeded the founder.

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Republished by Catholic Online with permission of the Union of Catholic Asian News (UCA News), the world's largest Asian church news agency (www.ucanews.com).