Για την “ακλόνητη δέσμευσή μας για τη συμφιλίωση των χριστιανών, για την ενότητα των εκκλησιών μας” κάνει λόγο ο Οικουμενικός Πατριάρχης Βαρθολομαίος σε μήνυμά του για τα 75 χρόνια από την ίδρυση της Παπικής οικουμενιστικής κοινότητας Ταιζέ. Επίσης ο κ. Βαρθολομαίος τονίζει την προσκόλλησή του με αμετάκλητη δέσμευση στο ζήτημα της ενότητας των χριστιανών και επαναμβάνει πολλάκις την λέξη “εμπιστοσύνη”.
The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew
2015 is a jubilee year for your community and we wish to congratulate you on this occasion. At the junction of the centenary of the birth of Brother Roger and the tenth anniversary of his death, this spiritual interval is also marked by the seventy-five years of your community.
The convergence of these three events marks perfectly the indissoluble destiny between the charismatic figure of your founder, Brother Roger, and the spiritual courage he demonstrated in making tangible his ecumenical vocation. It is not only a matter of having a vision, one must also be able to give it a body and a soul. So, inspired by the urgent necessity for Christian unity, Brother Roger not only shaped the outer material of a truly multi-confessional community but was also the promoter of a spiritual ecumenism characterized by a particular focus on youth.
The unity of Christians is an obvious fact to which we are attached by an irreversible commitment. But as time passes, the decades follow one another, and the initial enthusiasm loses breath, it is necessary to reflect on the reasons for unity. Besides the injunction of Christ in the Gospel of John, “Be one!” (Jn 17:21), determining in itself alone our search for the restoration of the bond of communion, it is essential to understand the constantly renewed actuality of this commandment. Certainly, historical conditions evolve. On the contrary, our unwavering commitment to the reconciliation of Christians, to the unity of our churches, is due to the emergence of an ecumenical kairos, by which the Church’s catholicity should manifest itself.
Brother Roger left you hope as a spiritual testament. Now the eyes of hope are always turned towards the future, that is to say it is rooted in the younger generations. We want to salute the important mission of the Community of Taizé in respect of this ecumenism of life that finds its source in a spirit of fraternal exchange, in faithfulness to the Scriptures and the Fathers of the Church.
We end this modest message by reminding you of the words of the Orthodox theologian Olivier Clément: ” ’Trust’ is a key word in Taizé. The meetings organized by the community in Europe and on other continents, are part of a pilgrimage of trust on earth. The word ’trust’ is perhaps one of the most humble words, the most everyday and the simplest there can be, but at the same time it is one of the most essential.”
So is it in this spirit of “trust” in the Lord, that we congratulate you again on the occasion of this jubilee year for your community and we pray Christ our God that he will give growth in hope to your essential mission in the service of Christian unity.
