“A HEART that TRUSTS” (*)

Roger Schutz, known to all as “Brother Roger”, the founder of the Taizé Community in France died on August 16th, murdered whilst at prayer by a mentally disturbed visitor. Though this has been shocking, there is a sense in which it bears witness to the Gospel values of openness, risk and vulnerability which made Taizé a place of pilgrimage for so many, believer and unbeliever, sick and whole, settled or troubled. With his Lord, Roger knew what it was to bear the cross, and with his Lord he knows and tastes the promised Resurrection life.

A Swiss Reformed Pastor, Roger came to the Burgundy village of Taizé in 1940, renting the manor house and living a life of prayer, whilst giving shelter to Jewish refugees fleeing through Vichy France. Others joined him, all at this time “Protestant”, to take the traditional monastic vows and to live lives of prayer. In a gesture far ahead of those unecumenical times the Roman Catholic authorities gave permission for the village church to be used for the daily prayer, and Roger’s vision for the reconciliation of Christians and their enrichment began to take shape.

As the community grew, people began to be drawn to it as a place of renewal, especially young people, attracted by the atmosphere of prayer, of inclusiveness, of the attempt to live out Gospel values. For over forty years thousands of people, the majority under 30, have come each week to share the community’s life, to camp in the fields, and to share in prayer, discussion, and manual work. Everything is centred on the huge Church of the Reconciliation where the thrice-daily prayer takes place. The experience of worship at Taizé goes deep, not least with the unique music and the deep silences, and the sense of a deep unity across the barriers of denomination, culture, colour or nationality. There are no “gimmicks” in Taizé - worship is not entertainment, though it is certainly joyful - everything is real and deep, and people find there a meeting place with the Risen Christ.

Roger himself embodied much of what he tried to do. All who met him (and I was privileged to be one of them twenty years ago) testified to the genuineness and simplicity of the man, to the deep but unobtrusive spirituality, and the way in which living the disciplined Taizé Rule of prayer and service had enhanced not diminished his humanity. Some people we meet are almost Icons of Christ. (I think of Archbishop Michael Ramsey or Cardinal Basil Hume), for many of us Brother Roger was like that, reflecting the glory of God. (See 2 Corinthians 3:18)

People have often wondered what would happen to the Community after Roger’s death, since so many things in the life of Christian fellowships are all too dependent on their founders and first visionaries. Whilst we should pray for Brother Alois, Roger’s successor as Superior, we should not, I think, unduly worry. Like John the Baptist Roger knew he should decrease so that Christ should increase (see John 3:30)

Whether we have been to Taizé, or simply been touched and influenced and enriched by the music and the style of worship, we should give thanks for the life and ministry of Brother Roger, and for the work of God’s grace in him and the Taizé community. We too are seeking to learn and incarnate the Gospel values of welcome, openness and vulnerability, so that Christ will be better known by us and through us.

Twenty years ago in worship at Taizé I heard Brother Roger at the end of the long silence extemporise a prayer in his unmistakable guttural French. It stayed with me. In English it ran like this: “Bless us, Lord, by your forgiveness. Each day we rise anew, and you put upon our finger the ring of the Prodigal Son”.

May he rest in peace and rise in glory.

Roger Clarke

August 2005

(* “A Heart that Trusts” - the title of one of Brother Roger’s published Journals)