CHAPTER BEST PRACTICES
Editor’s Note: Chapters are NPM’s local presence and support in more than 70 dioceses across the country. Many have web sites or Facebook pages to connect members and share activities in timely ways. Going forward in Pastoral Music, we’ll feature chapter best practices and “how to” features that meet every chapter’s threefold mission for networking, formation and social justice. Watch the digital newsletter Notebook for up-to-date chapter news.
Prayerful Fellowship Flourishes in Monthly Taize-Style Gathering
Grand Rapids, Michigan Te Prayer of Peace in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is a monthly prayer event in the spirit of Taizé. It was started in 2006 in the inner-city parish of St. Mary’s out of a desire to touch the peace of Christ within the human heart, to foster that peace and to share it with others. Te organizers quickly recognized that prayer in the spirit of Taizé is a marvelous way of experiencing and cultivating peace
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through contemplative, communal, ecumenical prayer. Tey chose to follow close to the pattern of prayer described on the Taizé web site (taize. fr/en) and the book Prayer for Each Day (GIA).
Te Prayer of Peace organizers tap into the experience and resources of musicians from the diocesan NPM chapter. An ensemble of volunteer musicians come together to lead the music for an assembly of more than 50 people each month. Most of those in attendance are regulars who come several times a year. Many are people who rarely miss a month.
Perhaps this prayer is “successful” because it meets a need. Brother Roger of Taizé wrote, “Caught up in the anonymous rhythms of schedules and timetables, men and women of today are implicitly thirsting for the one essential reality: an inner life, signs of the invisible.”
In addition to the songs, prayer in the spirit of Taizé is also known for its visual simplicity and beauty. Te visual environment for the Prayer of Peace
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