French brother gave up career in medicine

Press, 18 March 1988, Page 7

French brother gave up career in medicine

A French brother fromjl a religious community:) with a difference ' is a)i living parable of the life he “took up in a , moment,” abandoning a possibly lucrative career in medicine.

Brother'Ghislain, of the monastic community of brothers at Taize in France, is in Christchurch to bring his experience of the Taize movement to a special week-end at St Mary’s Anglican church, Addington. | The name of the little French village in Burgundy has become a symbol of a pilgrimage movement towards unity and peace for [thousands of young, people throughout the world. ) i Its trademark is reflected in a' form of worship that is distinctive in simplicity, 'and emphasis on Chanting and ’•long periods of meditation

Brother! Ghislain gave up a [career as a doctor not long after he joined the Taizei community in France 20 years ago. He preferred | not to give his former family name.

The brothers chose to relinquish] their surnames so that they did not reveal the social class they came from,' "in order that we might be one,” he said. The , simplicity and shared lives of the celibate monastic community in the village found an instant empathy in the young doctor fresh from graduation.

“When you find the real sense of life, you give up everything. It is like when you love; somebody, you give up some things, or go to another country to be with.! them, but you get much in [return. "I have no regrets.” Brother Ghislain believes a' simple, caring.

sharing lifestyle has mi to offer people especit in today’s . material!: and technological' sock

ich illy Stic sty.

In 1940 the village! of Taize was the "line down the middle” | between Nazi-occupied France And Free France. It was there that the movement’s founder, the Swiss-born Brother Roger,) helped hide Jewish refugees And after the war fugitive German prisoners, i ' I Nine years later j he formed' a community of men to live out) a) "parable of community/’ an example to the world that unity and peace] are possible, between [ religions and between people. Today, 85 brothers from 25 different countries,! cultures and religiolns live in the French community. The monastery is selfsupporting, as some of the brtjjvers are potters and artists, or work on the

printing | press or cooperative farm. A community of women a kilometre down the road has also been established, where retreats and Bible studies are held.

Each 1 year huge international) youth meetings are also held in either Paris, London, Rome, Barcelona dr Cologne.

Brother Ghislain now lives in Madras, India, where he has worked in the slums as part of the community’s fraternity there, )although not as a doctor. [

He has been invited to New Zealand by four Anglican churches in Christchurch, Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin.

The Taize way of worship has also been adopted in some forms by several other denominations.