132 PART TWO: AN EMPIRICAL ACCOUNT son for the life of the world, then it means that everybody must belong to that.318 From the outset, he felt that the separations between Christians contradicted the very essence of Jesus’ ministry. Therefore, he continues by stating that he sought ways to live unity. He took the first steps by reading Orthodox theologian Anthony Bloom and visiting a Roman Catholic Church with the son of the train driver. Both experiences disclosed for him a reality of contemplative prayer that he cherished.319 Finally, Taizé would be the place where he could live the unity that his intuition told him to be essential. The encounter with the community was for Brother TB a starting point for concrete ecumenical commitment. He states that, indeed, this was one of the reasons for him to join the community: And I think that this was a sort of clear guideline for me to ask always, where, where does this happen? ... And that's maybe one thing also which kept me here in Taizé, or brought me here... um.... And then, when I understood what is behind, which theological discussions....320 Even though TB realized already early on in his life that Christian unity is essential to the Christian faith, he became only ecumenically active after encountering Taizé. Other members of the communities, however, were already ecumenically active prior to joining their respective monasteries. Continuation and deepening of ecumenical commitment Brother TA, analyzing his own ecumenical commitment, concludes that there is a kind of ‘generation gap’ between groups of brothers in Taizé. He says: Surely, I belong to a different generation, indeed, than Brother um… Brother [TB], Brother [TC], indeed, well, they really are of the, of the generation of the Second Vatican Council, or just thereafter… um… so who have known a church that was way more conservative… and the enormous diligence, umof openness and, and ecumenism…um… and, and with me that’s way less, you know.321 Even though, in many regards, his own understanding of his Reformed belonging echoes that of Brother TB (both emphasize that they take no particular pride in this denominational identity), he was more concretely 318 TB-1,38. 319 TB-1,30-32. 320 TB-1,38. 321 TA-2,6.
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