Brethren share in loss of Brother Roger of Taize.

The founder of the Taize community in France, brother Roger Louis Schutz-Marsauche, was stabbed to death yesterday, Aug. 16, during an evening prayer service at the community's Reconciliation Church, according to a press report from France. Taize's 90-year-old founder was known simply as Brother Roger.

Taize is an ecumenical monastic community founded in the 1940s with a message of peace and friendship across cultures. The group's unique meditative music and worship style draws tens of thousands of youth and young adult pilgrims from around the world every year. The report said police detained a 36-year-old mentally disturbed Romanian woman who made the attack in the presence of some 2,500 young worshippers.

"We join the world in this loss," said Stan Noffsinger, general secretary of the General Board. "We recognize that the Taize community and Brother Roger have had a significant impact on the lives of many Brethren, and will continue to have an effect on the church for many years to come." Several Taize hymns are included in "Hymnal: A Worship Book" and in the "Hymnal Supplement" series published by Brethren Press. Some Brethren congregations regularly hold prayer services in the Taize style.

Among those who visited Taize were several study groups from Bethany Theological Seminary, led by professor emerita Nancy Faus. The manner of Brother Roger's death, and his character of "deep compassion and tremendous love," made the tragedy "unbelievable and ironic," she said. "Here was a man that started this community with an emphasis on peace and love and reconciliation for Christians and the world. For this to happen in a service of prayer is beyond all comprehension."

Brother Roger's burial is planned for Aug. 23. Until then, his body will be placed in the Reconciliation Church every afternoon for all who would like to meditate near to him, Faus said.

Source: 8/17/2005 Newsline
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