Diocese of Portsmouth
The Church of England
a service at Taizé

Taizé Community

Taizé is a small town in the Burgundy region of France where a monastic community, founded in 1940 by Brother Roger Schütz, has been the focus of Christian pilgrimage from all over the world. The community has become well-known through it’s simple, chant-like style of worship and prayer, and is especially popular with young people, with over 100,000 making pilgrimages to Taizé every year for prayer, study and communal work.

Bishop Jonathan regularly leads groups of young people from our schools to Taizé each year on an eight-day trip to experience this unique and wonderfully spiritual community. You can read about those trips here: July 2023; July 2024; July 2025.

If you would be interested in joining a future trip to Taizé (for teenagers/young adults), please contact Amanda Collinson, the Bishop’s Chaplain, on 023 9289 9692, or Heather Powney, the diocesan’s Children, Youth and Families officer, on 023 9289 9650.

You can find out what goes on at the Taizé community on their website here, and read about the history of the community here.

In this section

Rev Ryan Cook, priest-in-charge of Cowes, Northwood and Gurnard, on the Isle of Wight, visited Taizé in July 2026, and shared this reflection.

Young people in worship at Taizé
Young people in worship at Taizé

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Taizé-style services

Our cathedral hosts a monthly Taizé-style service, usually the first Sunday of the month, offering an opportunity for peace and quiet, for stillness and reassurance. They meet in the Cathedral Nave to join in Taizé songs and chants and be led in prayer with a time of quiet reflection and meditation. The service usually lasts about 40 minutes. Taizé-style services do also take place in other parishes. See below for details.