Taize in the heart of Brisbane

Participated in a Taize service lead by several of the brothers who are touring Oz from Taize in France.

Taize style is low key, medative. Many people sit on the floor. My kind of thing. bare feet too if you (like me) like that.
The singing is a bit like a chant where one sings the same one or two line verse over and over again hence it is quite medative.

There was a short sermon and also ten minutes of silence for reflection. So good for thinking through and relaxing. No good if you are the sort of person who needs action to entertain you.

After the service they had pizza. Mountains of pizza.

Met David Baker and Tim Hills.

I arrived on the dot of 4:00pm

About half the auditorium had seats and the remainder had had the seats removed and a mat on the ground.  Sat there.  Removed shoes.

The service began.

Music was great.  Megan was the conductor.  I thought a very nice "mix".  I could hear some acoustic guitar through the PA as well as some singers.  Turned out as much good luck as anything.  No one knew where the sound desk was.  They had two radio hand helds and a radio lapel.  The lapel was shoved in the sound hole on the guitar.


As I sat in the service,  I pondered what was behind the alter. In the Anglican cathedral its all a bit dark and gloomy but here it was well lit with a glass wall. You can see the light streaming through the door to the left of the organ pipes.

After the service I wandered up behind the main alter to see how they had lit it and found a glass wall with sunlight streaming in.  This seemed odd because the wall was facing east and it was late afternoon. 

Outside and the glass wall is in that round bit to the left.  It seems maybe a cluey architect had made use of the light reflecting off glass sky scrapers.

The majority of the cross light and the bright light on the grass on the photo above were being reflected from this building.