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The city of Homs, once a theater of war, will be resound for four days with the famous Taizé chants and fellowship
By Mélinée Le Priol | Syria
Three thousand kilometers separate the peaceful hilltop home of the Taizé Community in east-central France from the city of Homs in Syria, a city still disfigured from a decade of war.
But from today through Sunday, the meditative chants for which the ecumenical community is famous will resound in Syria's third largest city, located between Damascus and Aleppo.
The country will host its first ever Taizé meeting, modeled on those held each New Year in a different city in Europe.
Originally planned for 2020, this unprecedented event had to be postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Most Christians in Syria have little familiarity with Taizé, a distant community whose name was unknown to most of them until now.
This week's gathering is being organized on behalf of the Taizé Community by the Jesuits in Syria.
They felt that such an event could meet at least "two needs" of the country's Christian young people: offer them a simple moment of prayer in a difficult context and bring together believers of the various Churches and rites.
It will not be a "golden interlude"
The 800 expected participants come from the seven different Christian Churches that are present in Homs -- Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Syriac Orthodox, Syriac Catholic, Maronite, Evangelical and Latin Rite Catholic.
The participants are between 18-25 years of age. Half of them are from Homs, while the other half come from other Syrian cities (Aleppo, Damascus, Latakia...).
Those coming from the other towns will be billeted with volunteer families in Homs.
Although they cannot be present, members of the Taizé Community prepared the prayers that will be read each day.
Father Vincent de Beaucoudrey, a French Jesuit who has been living in Homs the past three years and is involved in youth ministry, is one of the key players in this Taizé meeting.
But even though the meeting is to be "simple and festive", he refuses to see it as a simple "golden interlude".
"What we want above all is for the young people gathered in Homs to be able to talk about their problems in a way that allows them to live in the present, without being too burdened by the weight of the past and the anxiety of the future," he said.
Exodus of youth and Christians
In the grip of a serious economic crisis, notably due to the sanctions imposed by Europe and the United States against the regime of Bashar al-Assad, Syria has seen an exodus of its young people for several years.
And for those who remain, plans to emigrate are on everyone's lips.
Father de Beaucoudrey is aware of this desire, but hopes that it "does not kill the present".
Moments of prayer and Bible sharing are planned mainly for the mornings, while various workshops, especially artistic and handiwork sessions, will fill up the afternoons.
"Some of the young people will also present local initiatives they are involved in," said André Maillard, a permanent deacon and member of the steering committee of L'Œuvre d'Orient, the association that is financially supporting the meeting.
The idea is to give hope to these young people and to encourage them to get involved.
While the Christian exodus from Syria dates back to the 19th Century, it has accelerated significantly since the start of the civil war in 2011.
According to the Hope Center in Aleppo, there are only 140,000 Christian families left in the country. There were 560,000 before the war.
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