On Dec. 3, Beijing Congwenmen Church held the Taizé Prayer Meeting "The Beginning of Love" at 9:00-11:00, opening the curtain of the series of worship activities in the Christmas month.
The morning of Thursday is the fixed prayer time of Chongwenmen Church. After the congregation prayed for personal topics, they came into the Taizé Prayer which is a special praying meeting created by Taizé Community.
The prayer consists of repetitive short chants, praying, reading the Bible and a period of silence. The arrangement of the chancel was different from ever: Purple cloth used for the Christmas month and red silk cloth standing for the road hung on the altar; the candles put on the carpet and the light symbolized Jesus; the vines symbolizing life stood on the two sides.
Some believers were attracted by the new praying style but a brother who was born in the 1990s expressed that he nearly fell asleep for it was too quiet and it might be more suitable for his parents.
Taizé is a monastic community located in Taizé, France, founded in the 1940s by a Swiss named Roger Louis Schütz-Marsauche, familiarly called Brother Roger. Their music is straightaway and harmonious, in order and flexible with a unique style that touches hearts and souls combined with the prayer pattern which is silent and with meditation.
The style of prayer practiced at Taizé has attracted many worshipers from around the globe and from many different denominations. The prayers consist of "short chants, repeated again and again," according to an introduction in a Taizé songbook. "The words are sung over many times."
The Taizé Prayer Meeting is the beginning of the activities in the Christmas month of Chongwenmen Church. In the evening of Friday in the next three weeks the church will hold "Eternal Love" Unplugged Musical Worship(on Dec. 11), "Christ of Love" Biblical Play named "The Adoration of the Magi"(on Dec. 18) and "Hope of Love" Opera called "Everything " at Christmas Eve(on Dec. 25).
