Taizé & Compline

Beginning November 2nd, 2021

One of several different orders of service in our prayer book is An Order For Compline.

Last spring during Lent we had a small group of singers who offered a sung service of Compline once a week during Lent. Compline is a service for the end of the day with night prayers for a peaceful rest. It is a contemplative service that emphasizes spiritual peace.

We have plans to revive another contemplative service that we have enjoyed at Good Shepherd. We called it a Taizé service within an evening that included a simple meal and a short program of varied topics. Our pattern was to do this once a month.

Taizé is a style of worship that comes from the ecumenical Taizé community in France. One of the main features of the service is the music specifically written for Taizé . The music is a meditative style of chant with a repeated melody that everyone sings. The repetitive melody is decorated by singers or instrumentalists. There is no specific order of liturgy for a Taizé service and therefore you can find examples of Taizé Eucharists, Taizé Evensong, or Taizé Compline. Since the services we have had in the past were largely based on the order of Compline, we had a Taizé Compline.

Our plans are to use even more of the structure of Compline and include the Taizé music that was so enjoyed. Watch for more information as we hope to return to these evenings of gathering for meal, program and Taizé Compline beginning on Tuesday November 2nd.