I’ve heard the cry for “more young people” at just about every UMC event I’ve ever attended, and I’ve seen many blogs post many different perspectives on the relations between young people and the church, but Iona and Taize have their own unique responses to young people.
In Iona, our college group was welcomed as part of an intergenerational community. All of the friends I found there were older than me, some by a couple generations. We built relationships across age barriers and had conversations we would never have had with each other. I learned much from my older friends and enjoyed talking, drawing, puppeteering, worshiping, walking with them through our weeklong journey there. In Iona, young people were people just like all the others in the community. Simple as that. No discrimination, no sense that our voices were less important or awkwardly overemphasized, just people. Praise God.
In Taize, we were one little group amongst thousands of people who were almost all in the 16-25 age range. Most were in their early twenties, so I blended right in. We had small groups of people within a year of our age but from many countries. We talked through big topics with our different backgrounds offering many perspectives and found a variety of conclusions, often disagreeing, but we found common ground in the way we thought about things.
But when I wrote about Taize’s ministry yesterday, I didn’t mention the best part. This ministry of reconciliation, this pilgrimage of trust across the earth? Most of the time, it’s not the monks spreading the word. And it’s not senior citizens. It’s not clergy or businesspeople or anyone recognized as successful or respectable.
It’s us.
Roger’s grandmother told him about her actions during WWI and her opinions about the war not just to fill conversation, but because he was young. She knew that young people have the power to change the world. And look at what Brother Roger did, knowing that one person believed he could do anything.
Pope John Paul II described Taize like this in a letter to young people:
One passes through Taize as one passes close to a spring of water. The traveler stops, quenches his thirst and continues on his way. The brothers of the community, you know, do not want to keep you. They want, in prayer and silence, to enable you to drink the living water promised by Christ, to know his joy, to discern his presence, to respond to his call, then to set out again to witness to his love and to serve your brothers and sisters in your parishes, your schools, your universities, and all your places of work.
We have passed through Taize, and what do you know? Suddenly I’ve found a reason to witness to God’s love in a more active way. Taize welcomes all of us young people specifically as our own generation. The monks believe we have the power to change the world, and by sharing their community with us they have given us a reason to do it.
Which way is better, Iona’s welcome or Taize’s empowerment? I think putting them together creates an incredible experience. We are people, not “young people” in our own little box on display in the corner, but people. And we have a voice, and our voice is important, and we have something to say.
Road to Emmaus 