European youth meeting
The European Youth Meetings are major annual events for young people and young adults organized by the ecumenical Communauté de Taizé . Every year at the turn of the year, the Taizé Community organizes a youth meeting with tens of thousands of visitors in a major European city as part of the pilgrimage of trust on earth . The meetings usually take place from December 28th to January 1st. The 42nd European Taizé youth meeting took place in the Polish city of Wroclaw at the end of 2019 . The European Taizé meeting in Turin , originally planned for 2020, will be postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic . Instead, there will be a smaller meeting in Taizé for the first time in 2020, which will be supplemented by an online program.
The pilgrimage of trust on earth is a pilgrimage in the figurative sense. The ecumenical Community de Taizé would like to bring its idea of global trust to the people through the annual youth meeting. The numerous young people who make their way to these cities from Europe and around the world are regarded as pilgrims. If possible, the meetings take place alternately in East and West Europe, but this is not always possible for organizational reasons.
accommodation
The young people are accommodated primarily in host families, but if necessary also in schools and gyms. The local Christian communities are the main sponsors of the micro-organization of the meeting. The participating young people are evenly allocated to the parishes centrally, paying attention to a healthy mixture of origin and language. In order to cope with the number of guests and the time of arrival, guests who arrive early are given accommodation outside the respective city. This means that young people who arrive late on the day of arrival are accommodated within the city and thus have the opportunity to attend the first big Taizé prayer in the evening. In the communities, the young people are then allocated to the individual accommodations.
daily routine
The day begins with a common breakfast in the host families or accommodation and an opening, small Taizé prayer in the local parish. Then you will be invited to a Bible discussion or an exchange about the letter from Taizé . At lunchtime, the participants gather at the city's exhibition center, where the central prayer and discussion events take place. Before that there is a simple lunch.
In the afternoon there are topic-related groups or national or language area-limited meetings. However, many young people also use one or the other afternoon to discover the host city. In the evening there is again a simple dinner in the exhibition halls and a final Taizé prayer.
Most events are translated into several languages or presented in different languages.
The parishes organize the New Year's Eve decentrally. It begins with a prayer for peace from 11 p.m. until shortly before midnight, in order to give the young people the opportunity to start the year embedded in the pilgrimage of trust . Afterwards there is a big festival of nations , which is sometimes spontaneous, sometimes after months of preparation as a disco with a DJ, with live music from a band or with games that the guests bring with them from their home country. The guests from every nation received in the parish are encouraged to make a small contribution to the festival of nations.
On New Year's Day, an attempt is made to ensure that all guests - including those from the communal accommodations - can have lunch with a family in order to enable an exchange between guests and hosts.
aims
In addition to spiritual impulses and international encounters, the meeting also aims to get to know the ecclesiastical situation in the host country and the host families. It is the aim of the community that the impulses arising from the meetings pass into the parish life of the participants by encouraging the young people to take part in the church life in their homeland.
Due to the high number of participants, the infrastructure of the host city, especially the city traffic, is often pushed to its limits, so that only large cities are suitable for these events. In Paris 1994/95, for example, the participants were asked to reach the exhibition center from three different underground lines because the metro was overloaded by the many participants.
Each year , Brother Roger wrote a letter to the young people about the meetings . It is used for discussion and reflection at the youth meetings in Taizé throughout the following year . While at the youth meeting in Milan in 2005/2006, shortly after his death, Brother Roger's last, unfinished letter was published, in the following years his successor, Brother Alois , took over the writing of the letters.
Volunteers
The European Youth Meeting is prepared by a small group of brothers and long-term volunteers in collaboration with the local communities. The meeting itself is then organized by numerous volunteers who arrive two days earlier (i.e. on December 26th). These volunteers take on, among other things, the division of the guests into the parishes, the care of the guests on site, the design of group accommodation, the distribution of food and the task of stewards during the prayers. Working as an instrumentalist or singer in an orchestra or choir for the large, central Taizé prayers is a special task.
places
| Title of the letter | year | place | Attendees | |
| 2021/2022 | Turin | |||
| (Replacement meeting due to the corona pandemic) | 2020/2021 | Taizé | ||
| 2019/2020 | Wroclaw 3 | 15,000 | ||
| Let's not forget about hospitality! | 2018/2019 | Madrid | 15,000 | |
| A joy that never runs dry | 2017/2018 | Basel | 17,000 | |
| Open paths of hope together | 2016/2017 | Riga | 15,000 | |
| The courage of mercy | 2015/2016 | Valencia | 20,000 | |
| On the way to a new solidarity (letter 2012–2015) | Four suggestions for being the salt of the earth | 2014/2015 | Prague 2 | 30,000 |
| Four suggestions for seeking the visible communion of all those who love Christ | 2013/2014 | Strasbourg / Ortenau | 30,000 | |
| Four suggestions for uncovering the sources of trust in God | 2012/2013 | Rome 4 | 40,000 | |
| 2011/2012 | Berlin | 28,000 | ||
| Letter from Chile | 2010/2011 | Rotterdam | 30,000 | |
| Letter from china | 2009/2010 | Posen (Poznan) | 30,000 | |
| Letter from Kenya | 2008/2009 | Brussels | 40,000 | |
| Letter from Cochabamba | 2007/2008 | Geneva | 40,000 | |
| Letter from Calcutta | 2006/2007 | Zagreb | 40,000 | |
| Unfinished letter | 2005/2006 | Milan 2 | 50,000 | |
| A future in peace | 2004/2005 | Lisbon | 40,000 | |
| At the source of joy | 2003/2004 | Hamburg | 55,000 | |
| God can only love | 2002/2003 | Paris 5 | 80,000 | |
| Love and say it through your life | 2001/2002 | Budapest 2 | 70,000 | |
| Do you suspect luck | 2000/2001 | Barcelona 3 | 80,000 | |
| Amazed joy | 1999/2000 | Warsaw | 70,000 | |
| 1999-2001 | 1998/1999 | Milan | 100,000 | |
| Unexpected joy | 1997/1998 | Vienna 2nd | 80,000 | |
| From doubt to unadulterated community | 1996/1997 | Stuttgart | 70,000 | |
| Live to love | 1995/1996 | Wroclaw 2 | 70,000 | |
| Marvel and love | 1994/1995 | Paris 4th | 105,000 | |
| From new beginning to new beginning | 1993/1994 | Munich | 80,000 | |
| Letter from the Philippines (Awaken to a Joy) | 1992/1993 | Vienna | 105,000 | |
| A love that springs from freedom | 1991/1992 | Budapest | 75,000 | |
| Letter from Prague | 1990/1991 | Prague | 80,000 | |
| Sources of trust | 1989/1990 | Wroclaw | 50,000 | |
| Letter from Russia | 1988/1989 | Paris 3 | 33,000 | |
| Letter from Ethiopia | 1987/1988 | Rome 3 | 24,000 | |
| Letter from the sources | 1986/1987 | London 2 | 19,000 | |
| Letter from Madras | 1985/1986 | Barcelona 2 | ||
| Letter from the desert | 1984/1985 | Cologne | ||
| Letter from Haiti | 1983/1984 | Paris 2nd | ||
| Letter from the catacombs | 1982/1983 | Rome 2 | ||
| Letter from Warsaw | 1981/1982 | London | 20,000 | |
| Letter from Italy | 1980/1981 | Rome | 30,000 | |
| Letter from Temuco (letter to all communities) | 1979/1980 | Barcelona | 15,000 | |
| Letter from Africa (amazement of love) | 1978/1979 | Paris | 15,000 | |
Due to the corona pandemic, the 2020/2021 youth meeting, which should originally have taken place in Turin, has been postponed for a year. Instead, a New Year's Eve meeting will take place directly in Taizé for the first time - under Corona restrictions and only for young adults between 18 and 35 years of age.
Media support
Some Taizé prayers are broadcast during the European Youth Meetings by the national television companies, such as Basel 2017/2018.
In addition, in Madrid 2018/2019 a daily live stream of the Taizé evening prayer was broadcast on the website and on the Facebook page of the Taizé Community .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b end of 2020, for the first time a European youth meeting in Taizé. Ateliers et Presses de Taizé, August 12, 2020, accessed on August 12, 2020 .
- ↑ a b The next European Youth Meeting will take place in Turin. Ateliers et Presses de Taizé, December 30, 2019, accessed on January 2, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Pope Francis: “To be close to the rejected”. Dicasterium pro Communicatione, December 27, 2018, accessed on January 2, 2020 .
- ↑ a b The next European youth meeting in Basel. Ateliers et Presses de Taizé, January 10, 2017, accessed on January 2, 2020 .
- ↑ 17,000 young people celebrate Christianity in Basel. Ateliers et Presses de Taizé, December 31, 2017, accessed on January 2, 2020 .
- ↑ a b c Annual letter from Taizé. Ateliers et Presses de Taizé, December 30, 2019, accessed on January 2, 2020 .
- ↑ a b KNA: Taizé meeting in Prague comes to an end. Next time Valencia. In: kirchensite.de. January 1, 2015, accessed January 1, 2015 .
- ↑ Taizé meeting ended - domradio.de. In: domradio.de. January 1, 2016, accessed January 3, 2016 .
- ↑ 36e rencontre européenne de Taizé. In: La Croix. December 30, 2013, accessed January 3, 2014 (French).
- ↑ KNA: Concrete Steps in Ecumenism. In: kirchensite.de. January 1, 2014, accessed January 3, 2014 .
- ↑ The next Taizé youth meeting will take place in 2012 in Rome. December 19, 2011, accessed January 13, 2014 .
- ↑ See you in Strasbourg. Domradio , January 1, 2013, accessed on January 3, 2014 .
- ↑ With a song on my lips. the daily newspaper , January 1, 2012, accessed on January 3, 2014 .
- ↑ Taize youth meeting in Rotterdam: Festival of the Nations and Prayer for Peace. Diocese of Linz , December 28, 2010, archived from the original on October 27, 2013 ; Retrieved January 3, 2014 .
- ↑ Number of participants at the meeting in Poznań by country ( Memento from December 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (English / French)
- ↑ End of 2020, for the first time a European youth meeting in Taizé. Retrieved August 26, 2020 .
- ↑ Livestream of the evening prayer - Taizé. Retrieved April 22, 2019 .