Document
Brother Alois
Taizé Community
71250 Taizé
France
Dear Brother Alois,
As you and the Taizé community gather this month in Wrocław, Poland, for the next stop in your Pilgrimage of Trust, I want, on behalf of the whole worldwide fellowship of Christians, to convey my greetings, promise my prayers, and send encouragement to you and to the thousands of young people journeying there.
As always, your meeting in Wrocław will be marked by hospitality and spirituality. Young pilgrims and residents will cross social, cultural, and religious boundaries to encounter each other and to share deep communion with God. It is a sign of new life and a crossroads moment for all of us. Further, you meet just after Christmas, when we ponder God’s incarnation in Jesus. In him we learn that God stands with us, suffers with us, abides with us, and is at work in us. No matter where we are in our journey, we are never uprooted from the love of Christ. At the beginning of a new year, we can then lift our hearts in genuine hope for a new day, when the seeds of contemplation and solidarity can enliven the creative energies of committed youth working for a better life for all in Europe.
You inspire us. The Taizé experience in so many ways exemplifies what we continue to find on our Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace, namely, that the journey itself calls forth our better selves. As disciples, we are continually transformed by the encounter with God and each other, eager to break down barriers—of nation, race, gender, or creed—and build community. In the words of our next assembly’s theme, “Christ’s love moves us to reconciliation and unity.”
Christ is not bound to or limited to any nation or nationalist agenda. Christ’s love pervades the one human family, the world, indeed the whole of God’s creation. Any discrimination or exclusion contradicts the love of Christ and endangers those who are stigmatized or excluded. The experience of the 20th century teaches us that.
We pray for every blessing on the encounter in Wrocław. May this next stage on Taizé’s Pilgrimage of Trust enable each and every participant to grow in the love of Christ and reveal a new dawn for all of us.
Yours in Christ,
Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit
General secretary
World Council of Churches