Praying around the cross at last year’s Taize prayer for Christian unity. (HCH photo | Darlene Dela Cruz)
The Diocese of Honolulu is hosting a Taize Prayer around the Cross in observance of the 2016 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, 7 p.m., Jan. 21, at the Newman Center at the University to Hawaii-Manoa. Bishop Larry Silva will attend.
The prayer — an hour of chants, prayers, petitions, Scripture readings, periods of silence and reverencing of the cross — comes from an international ecumenical community of Catholic and Protestant religious brothers in Taize, France.
This is the third consecutive year the diocese is sponsoring the Taize Prayer to mark the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The public is invited.
At the prayer around the cross, a large icon cross is laid horizontally on stools in the center of the chapel and, with the lights dimmed and candles burning, participants come forward about a half dozen at a time to kneel around the cross, touching it with their heads or hands while the congregation prays and sings.
Besides prayers for Christian unity, participants also pray for persecuted Christians, for the revival of Christian churches and for those who suffer injustice. The Newman Center hosts a Taize Prayer around the Cross every Good Friday.
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity has been observed for more than 100 years, working toward the fulfillment of Jesus’ prayer at the Last Supper “that they all may be one.” Each year, an international group organized through the World Council of Churches and The Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity prepares text material for the week based on a theme.
This year’s theme is a quote from the First Letter of St. Peter, “Called to proclaim the mighty acts of the Lord.”
The Taize monastery, which has about 100 members, attracts thousands of mostly young pilgrims from around the world. It also sponsors international ecumenical gatherings.
In a recent speech, Cardinal Walter Kasper, president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, described how Brother Roger, one of Taize’s Protestant founders, began the community by living a poor and simple life, joined by others in exploring the “ancient and Catholic monastic tradition.”
“Encounters with the Anglican and especially with the Orthodox tradition soon took place and would enrich still more the life of the new monastery of Taize through the love of icons, Eastern chants, and especially through the experience of the divine mystery in the celebration of the liturgy,” Cardinal Kaspar said. “Thus we find many Orthodox elements in the liturgy celebrated at Taize.”
The cardinal called Taize “an ecumenism lived out as a foretaste of the future communion of churches.”
Brother Roger “found the fullness of the Christian faith and all its richness without denying his origins and without breaking with anyone,” he said.
