Taize

Well, at the end of April we had our first Taize worship experience and it was lovely. We again used the empty storefront on Hamilton Street and had about 12 people attend. We did this at 9:30 at night and lit the place up with candles. Lots of candles. We had a small altar set up against the wall and inserted Holy Communion in the middle of the service. For those of you who aren't familiar with Taize, check it outhere.

Basically, this is a contemplative prayer service that is sung. You sing each prayer slowly and you repeat them in order to center, to open yourself up to an experience of God. We sung a few prayers, had a reading from the gospel, a sung psalm and then communion--and the prayers here were also sung. We had some silence and continued singing with the Lord's prayer. Steve, our musician, lead us with his violin and did a marvelous Job. We, as a group, had never sung together and I didn't know everyone in the room even. We did a wonderful job so, we're going to do it again.

Here's a picture of Julie, who is now off in Vietnam serving the world, lighting the candles.