During the course of my life I have been in the presence of three people whom I would regard as "Living Saints".

I shall always remember that great Archbishop of Canterbury - Michael Ramsey - speaking on the Transfiguration, at a Theological College in Durham.  To see and hear the great man talk about events that took place in Our Lord's life on the holy mount was to have been in the presence of a "Living Saint".

In 1982 I attended a service of Healing at St. George's Roman Catholic Cathedral in Southwark at which Pope John Paul II officiated on his visit to Britain.   As the pontiff passed close by I felt I was in the presence of a "Living Saint".

In 1997, when I was on my sabbatical pilgrimage from Rome to Canterbury, our pilgrim route took us to Taize in France - there we were privileged to meet Brother Roger, the founder of the community.   In that encounter I felt that I was in the presence of a "Living Saint".   Sadly, aged 90, a deranged Romanian woman, who stabbed the Prior to death while he was praying in the church, which he founded at Taize, has ended his life.   As one commentator observed: - "What a dreadful end to one of the finest men on the planet".    The Living Saint has now joined "the noble army of martyrs".   As the Leading article in the Daily Telegraph stated: - "In a recent public letter, he observed how we must "love life on earth, and at the same time long for a beyond, for a life that will never end".   His death, tragic as it must be for his followers, has released him into the life that will never end."  Amen to that!

When I met Brother Roger - he was at worship in the great church at Taize - our pilgrimage was being led by the then Bishop of Dover.   When it was my turn to be presented, Brother Roger turned to the monk next to him and said - "Is this the bishop?"  Well - thatís the only time in my life that I have been mistakenly identified as a bishop.   Although he was wrong in identifying me as Episcopal - although it was a wrong assumption it was heart-warming to be mistaken for a bishop by a "Living Saint".

So let me tell you something about this remarkable man and the amazing community that he founded sixty five years ago.

It was in 1940 that Roger Schutz set out from his native Switzerland on his bicycle.   He cycled all the way from Geneva to a remote small village in Burgundy.   There, on 20th August, he encountered an old peasant woman who said: - "Stay here.   We are so alone, so isolated."  So Taize became his base for the next six and a half decades until he was martyred on 16th August 2005.

Roger was brought up as a Lutheran, but a Lutheran with a great longing and desire for Church Unity.   He had a great vision to restore monasticism to the Protestant Churches.   In our own country in the 1530s the monasteries may have lost sight of their own original vision and may, in the king's eyes, have become too big for their monastic boots.  But we lost so, so much at the Dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century and this land became littered with the ruins of former great monastic houses.

Well, Brother Roger led a remarkable revival in bringing back the religious life to the Protestant world in an ecumenical setting.   At first he, in company with a handful of like-minded monks, prayed in the parish church at Taize - for about a decade nothing really happened - but through their prayers they were laying the foundation stones of a mighty movement which, in time, attracted many thousands of young people to Christ and the Christian faith.   Nowadays many, many thousands of young people flock to Taize each year to worship, pray and to study the Bible.

I first heard about Taize when I was in my teens.  I didn't actually get there until I was 45 - but I reckon that if I had gone there when I was 16 I might still be there - for I was so enraptured by the worship and the spiritual life of the community that I longed to stay forever in such a holy place.   Nowadays there are about 100 monks, mostly young men from all the main Christian traditions - Protestant, Orthodox and Catholic.  I don't think that anyone knows the secret as to why Taize has become such an outstandingly popular place of pilgrimage - simply that the Lord is there and His presence can be deeply felt - as I felt it for myself during my visit there eight years ago.

The worship offered at Taize is enhanced by the use of icons, candles, prolonged periods of silent prayer and, above all, the music.  As a classically trained musician Brother Roger introduced the meditative form of repetitive chant, which is such a characteristic feature of Taize worship.   As the Taize Songbook states - "Song is one of the most essential elements of worship.   Short chants, repeated again and again, give it a meditative character.  Using just a few words . . . they express a basic reality of faith, quickly grasped by the mind."  So, perhaps that is the secret - expressing the faith with a basic simplicity - for how we do tend to complicate the faith and move away from the simplicity of the faith once preached by Jesus to His First disciples.

To meet Brother Roger was for me a great joy and a lasting privilege - an encounter I shall never forget as long as I live.   In that remote village in Burgundy, the spirit of the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount is most certainly being lived out.   When asked about the reasons for the appeal to modern youth - Brother Roger offered the simple explanation that the community's purpose was "to love and be loved, to forgive and to be forgiven".   What could be simpler or more Christ-like than that?

Christians the world over will be praying that Brother Roger's violent death will not silence his song of reconciliation, beauty and peace, nor dim his vision of Christ's love and Christís forgiveness.
 

With every blessing
FATHER DAVID