Council of Youth Meeting Held at Taize
Diocesan Press Service. September 13, 1974 [74238]
TAIZE, France -- Some 40,000 young people from more than 120 countries issued a 900-word challenge to the churches at the long-prepared-for Council of Youth which was held at Taize, France, August 30 - September 1.
The Council issued a "letter to the people of God," containing a series of challenging questions to the organized churches.
"Are you at last going to become a 'universal community of sharing,' " the youth asked, "a community finally reconciled, a place of communion and friendship for the whole of humanity ?"
The youth asked all Christians everywhere if they are willing to become "the seeds of a society without class and where none have privileges, without domination of one person by another, of one people by another?"
Brother Roger Schutz, prior of the Taize Community, said to the youth as he opened the Council, "Go as far as to die of love. The day has come, after much waiting -- waiting lived in common seeking with all the tensions that supposes: and finally, what has predominated is the trust of loving. Yes, without love, what is the point of living? Why keep on? Towards what goal? This is where the sense of our life lies: to be loved once and for all eternity, so that we in turn go so far as to die of love. Happy indeed whoever dies of love."
The Council of Youth was announced by Brother Roger at Easter 1970. Since that time, a number of encounters of youth have been held in preparation for the weekend event.
Just before the opening of the Youth Council, the Rt. Rev. John M. Allin, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, cabled the youth at Taize, expressing the hope that their gathering would "be a celebration of the Risen Christ."
"May the Council of Youth," his message continued, "and all those who are seekers discover, in the heart, the depths of resurrection and reconciliation. "
"We journey with you in seeking to live in proclamation the Joyful News," he concluded.
Youth Councils will continue to be held regularly at Taize and elsewhere throughout the world to continue what was begun at Taiz6. A council is planned for Easter 1975 and there will be one or two during the summer of 1975.
Brother Roger was one of the speakers at the Trinity Institute in New York City and in San Francisco last January and February. Trinity Institute is a special ministry of the Parish of Trinity Church in New York City, providing theological education for Episcopal clergy throughout the year.
The Seabury Press, the publishing house of the Episcopal Church, has published several of Brother Roger's books, including The Rule of Taize, Festival, and Struggle and Contemplation. Seabury has also published Dare to Live: The Taize Youth Experience, a compilation of essays by a number of writers in preparation for the 1974 Council of Youth.