The whole world singing: A journey to Iona and Taize

Christian Century, March 22, 2000 by Belden C. Lane

I'VE OFTEN WONDERED what sort of conversation Protestant Reformer John Calvin and Catholic Bishop Francis de Sales would have had if they had met. These humanist scholars were both trained in law, were both afire with the love of God, and both ended up in Geneva, Switzerland, though separated by a generation.

Both Calvin and de Sales delighted in the role played by all created beings in singing the glory of God. Calvin, in his commentaries on the Psalms, and de Sales, in his Treatise on the Love of God, emphasized a rich theology of divine providence and saw God as intimately involved in loving and sustaining the natural world. Calvin spoke of the world as a theater of God's glory; de Sales spoke of beauty as God's way of attracting the affection of all creation.

How can their common joy in singing the glory of God stir theological dialogue today? This was the question I took with me when I visited two contemporary religious communities where the two traditions are intimately joined.

A little over two hours by high speed train from Geneva is the Taize Community, known around the world for the beauty of its chanted worship. This monastic community of a hundred Protestant, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox monks was founded in the early 1940s by Brother Roger Schutz, a Swiss Reformed pastor. Having launched a communal experiment among students at the University of Lausanne, Brother Roger sought a site for a more permanent community in eastern France. He chose the village of Taize, not far from the border of the Nazi-occupied zone. There, in the midst of rural poverty, his community stirred controversy with its clandestine efforts to help Jewish refugees escape into Switzerland, its organization of a milk co-op among local farmers and its use of the vacant Roman Catholic village church for daily prayer.

Seven hundred miles to the northwest along the rugged isles of Scotland's western coast, a restored Benedictine abbey is home to the Iona Community. It was founded by George MacLeod, a Church of Scotland pastor who organized out-of-work stonemasons and carpenters to rebuild the abbey in the 1930s. Here, members bear witness to the concerns of liturgical renewal, social justice and ecumenical s haring. Here, too, the praise of God resounds in a daily pattern of prayer that echoes Columba's first journey to the remote island in the mid-sixth century.

Like Brother Roger, MacLeod sought to renew the church with a liturgically focused common life that embraced poverty. As a pastor he had responded to the plight of workers in the shipbuilding yards of Glasgow during the depression. The community he founded on Iona became controversial for its strange mix of radical politics, a Catholic sense of the church and sacraments, and a call for reconciliation among Christians. Its members were accused of being "crypto-Roman Catholics in Presbyterian guise."

Both communities are based on a rule and a common life of prayer that joins work and worship in a Benedictine pattern. Morning prayer at Iona never concludes with a benediction; evening prayer never begins with a call to worship. Instead, the whole day becomes a continuation of the prayer that frames it at either end. Similarly, the three daily periods of prayer at Taize lack any formal conclusion. Soft chanting persists as people gradually leave to attend to other activities. In each place, praise gives continuity to each day.

Iona and Taize are located at remote sites, places on the edge, where a concern for marginalized peoples expresses itself naturally. Both are determined to cross ethnic, economic and ecclesial boundaries. Both reach out to the world while also reaching back to an earlier local tradition-Celtic in one case, Cluniac (or Cistercian) in the other.

But the places are also extremely different. Taize is a celibate, monastic community of men living under a common rule with Brother Roger as prior. It has smaller fraternities of brothers living among the poorest of the poor in Bangladesh, Calcutta and Brazil, but the center of the community is Taize. By contrast, the Iona community consists of 220 members spread all over the world, including lay and clergy, women and men, Protestant, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox. They too follow a rule that requires a daily practice of prayer and Bible study, the tithing of their money in support of common peace and justice concerns, and regular meetings with fellow members. But although a small contingent of members remains on Iona to help run programs and welcome guests, the community in general follows the Celtic pattern of wandering missionaries launched on pilgrimage around the world.

Taize appeals to the ear. People who return from Taize invariably speak of the beauty of the chanted songs that constitute its worship. Iona appeals more easily to the eye. Those coming back from Iona tell of its Wednesday pilgrimage and images of holy sites seen on the walking tour of the island. The difference ultimately is more a matter of emphasis than of substance. Iona too is celebrated for its creative music (with John Bell, for example) and Taize is surrounded by the beautiful vineyard-covered hills of Burgundy. Perhaps the two emphases simply point to a common desire--a wish that the whole of creation break into song in awe of God's glory.