photo and text by Stefan Waligur
I want to tell you a story. It’s the story of a community of people about to be born. It all began about twenty years ago in a little village in France called Taize. There in Taize I discovered something extraordinary – an ecumenical Christian community who greeted each day with a beautiful song of praise and closed each evening with a heart-felt song of trust – a community which welcomed young people every day. I was sent to this monastic community by the rector of Theological College in Washington, D.C., where I worked as music director. My task was to learn the music of the community and bring it back so we could begin to sing it. I realized later that my real task was much more expansive than I imagined.
When I got off the bus in the Community of Taize I encountered about 3,000 young people from all over Europe. They had traveled to Taize to participate in a week-long program of daily sung-prayer, teaching, dialogue, work and relaxation. Some belonged to Protestant and Catholic churches and others were curious and didn’t belong to any particular church. During the course of that week many new friends would be made. Sometimes – friends for life. Like them, I was about to experience something very different from what I had ever known, much more than just the music. It was that extraordinary experience and a new calling that I would bring back to the United States.
What I witnessed in Taize was, for me, perhaps the most beautiful thing I’d ever experienced. So beautiful that I was moved to tears. There in what is called the Church of the Reconciliation I saw young people from many different countries sitting together three times a day in prayer – morning, noon, and night. The prayer was filled with lovely meditative chants and songs that everyone sang and with brief encouraging readings from sacred scripture. In the middle of the singing there was an extended time of silence. The silence was about 10 minutes. All closed their eyes and sat in the stillness seeking God. All 3,000 of them. Following the silence, the singing continued. As the day unfolded we shared common meals, listened to teaching, and engaged in small groups on the hillside for conversation about peace, justice, scripture, and life. We were guided by thoughtful questions designed to draw out our own thoughts, feelings and experiences. We also worked together doing the everyday chores that needed doing. For seven days we followed the daily rhythm of the community. It was a week that was peaceful, inspiring, comforting and challenging.
When I returned to the United States I was changed. I had been transformed by the beauty of the sung-prayer and the meeting with fellow pilgrims. I felt deeply that something like the Taize Community and what they offered, needed to exist in the United States. Here was a community that was dedicated to peace and peacemaking in the world; a community that welcomes all for an extended period of time without regard for financial means; a community where people of different views could pray together everyday and engage in dialogue bringing them closer to one another in respect and understanding. Here was a community that was in search of God through beauty, thought, feeling, silence and solidarity with the most vulnerable. I knew that I was being called to help create something like it in the United States and that I would work for the rest of my life to fulfill this calling.
For the past twenty years I have offered retreats, workshops and concerts in the United States and abroad. I have met many people and made many friends who agree that something like the Taize Community would indeed be a very good thing for the people of this country. Two years ago, I was told that the owners of Sophia House Retreat Center in Louisa, VA were about to put it on the market. Sophia House is a lovely retreat center with other buildings on 270 acres of wooded and meadowed land. I called them and arranged to meet. Our meeting went extremely well. It felt Spirit-led. We agreed that we would work toward the fulfillment of this vision of a new community that would, in many ways, be like the Taize Community. We would call it Community of Peace Louisa (CPL).
A small group of friends and I plan to move there this coming June 2021 to begin a life together and to welcome people on a daily basis. We now meet weekly getting to know each other and working with the issues of community life such as mission, core-values, vision… We have also initiated a fund-raising campaign with the help of Hope Manifest to raise enough money for a down-payment, renovations, and maintenance for the next three years. We are excited about creating a new Community of Peace - a deeply welcoming place, a place of beautiful sung-prayer, a place of learning and dialogue, of racial reconciliation, of deepening friendship, of affirmation and empowerment of marginalized people, especially African Americans, Latino people, Native Americans, the LGBTQ Community and women, a place of deep care and respect for the land and the planet.
In a country so deeply divided and longing to be healed of past wounds we believe that the creation of Community of Peace is timely. As a nation and as part of a global family we now face the existential crises of climate change and environmental devastation, the destructive power of militarism and the ever-growing threat of nuclear destruction, the rise of hate-groups and racism, and the widening gap between rich and poor. Community of Peace is a small but significant response to all these vital concerns. We invite you to join with us and be part of this calling. Support this mission in whatever ways you can. Join us in creating something good and beautiful - something that will help heal our nation’s wounds, transform our society, and care for the planet. Together we can and will make a difference. Thank you.