This summer a group of young people and Bishop Olivia travelled to Taizé in France to join thousands of others from around the world in community, worship and prayer. Kathryn Aboud, Discipleship Enabler asks Bishop Olivia about what's excited her, what God has been saying to her and what she would say to people who are thinking of coming next year.
You can also hear what some of the young adults has to say.
What has been the most exciting thing for you so far in Taizé?
Well, I've been coming to Taizé for a number of years now and the last three years I've brought a group. This is the largest group that I've come with and it's a very diverse group and I think one of the most exciting things about Taizé is the way in which whoever you are and however much apprehension you come with, you can always find a place for yourself because it's an incredibly friendly, non-judgmental, kind place and a very healing place as well.
So, people come with all sorts of stuff. It doesn't mean it takes it all away, but it's a place where it's safe to share stuff and people tend to develop friendships that are very quickly formed and go very deep because people are sharing on quite a deep level. And that's a very wonderful thing really, it doesn't happen in ordinary life, but it seems to happen here as part of the magic of the place.
What do you feel God was saying to you throughout the week?
I think for me there have been two things. The first thing is I've heard God say very clearly, “trust me”. I was quite apprehensive about bringing a group this size this year because we hadn't done it quite this big before. And in all the thinking about what could go wrong and all of the complications of organising and the logistics and so on.
I just had a very clear sense of God saying, “trust me”. And when I arrived here, I knew that that was going to be really important. I have repeated that, God's repeated that through the week, “just trust me”. And the other thing that I've heard God saying is “be present”. And it makes me realise how much of my life I spend either planning for the future, running scenarios through, working out what I need to say or to do, or... analysed in the past and maybe stressing about things that haven't gone well and maybe replaying conversations and that sort of thing. And I've heard God say, just be present. Just appreciate the present moment, appreciate the person that you're with, appreciate the silence, if that's what you're doing. Appreciate the walk and the beautiful world around you. Just be present here and leave the rest to me. And that's a wonderfully liberating voice to hear.
What would you say to those who are thinking about coming to Taizé next year?
Well, I think that the people to ask that question to are the people who've come for the first time this year and would like to come back, because those people will be able to explain really articulately why it's made a difference for them.
I think that what I want to say is that we've got quite a lot of people here who are here for the first time with our group and each one of them has done something quite courageous in taking a step into the unknown. Maybe it's the first time they've gone abroad, they're not with their families, they're not necessarily with their friendship group, but they've been prepared to take a risk. And unless we take risks, we don't grow.
And so, people have come with an open heart and ready to grow and to do that, take that step into the unknown. And I just encourage anybody who's thinking about it just to be brave because it's a step into the unknown but into God's hands and I go back to that refrain of just trust me. And we've got a whole combination in this group of people who are churchgoers, come from church families, people who go to church by themselves, who've just become Christians, and those who aren't even very developed in their faith but they're just curious about some of these huge questions in life.
This is such a safe place for everybody to explore and to deepen. So just do it, just take the risk.