Jim Perkinson, now teaching History of Religion at Denver University, has long been a pilgrim to and devotee of the spiritual community founded by the [recently martyred] Brother Roger. He will tell the story of Taize and also recount his pilgrimage to the holy island of Skellig Michael off the Irish coast. On saturday 10/21 at 7PM, Perkinson will do performance poetry at Uncommon Grounds coffee house in Saugatuck. He is a published poet and has also authored Shamanism, Racism and Hip Hop Culture as well as White Theology; Outing Supremacy in Modernity.
Taizé, in the south of Burgundy, France, is the home of an international, ecumenical community, founded there in 1940 by Brother Roger. The brothers are committed for their whole life to material and spiritual sharing, to celibacy, and to a great simplicity of life. Today, the community is made up of over a hundred brothers, Catholics and from various Protestant backgrounds, from more than twenty-five nations.
At the heart of daily life in Taizé are three times of prayer together. The brothers live by their own work. They do not accept gifts or donations for themselves. Some of the brothers are living in small groups – “fraternities” - among the very poor.
Since the late 1950s, many thousands of young adults from many countries have found their way to Taizé to take part in weekly meetings of prayer and reflection. In addition, Taizé brothers make visits and lead meetings, large and small, in Africa, North and South America, Asia, and in Europe, as part of a “pilgrimage of trust on earth”.