By Christopher Gunty
Special Contributor

Salt Lake City— Amid the noise and spectacle of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, a parish here provided a daily space for quiet prayer and reflection.

For the second week of the Games, David Anderson, music director at Ascension Parish in Oak Park, coordinated twice-daily sessions of Taizé prayer, an ecumenical style of prayer marked by simple chants, Scripture readings and silent reflection.

Organizers of the prayer experience for the Salt Lake City Games asked Anderson to participate because he has led Taizé prayer for 10 years at Ascension and travels extensively to promote use of the style.

Sessions in Salt Lake City did not draw large numbers of participants to St. Catherine of Siena Parish, which serves as the Newman Center for the University of Utah across the street. The UU dorms became the Olympic Village for athletes and coaches. About 40 people attended Taizé prayer on the second Monday night of the Games.

“It’s not a numbers game,” Anderson said in an interview at the church after an evening prayer service. Taizé prayer “is about providing a space and place for prayer.”

He said he was not surprised that the prayer services did not draw throngs, and that not many athletes participated. “There is not a daily prayer culture” among the athletes, and people—athletes and spectators alike—are exhausted by the constant rush.

He said he met the chaplain of the Austrian national team, Salesian Father Bernhard Maier, who said that halfway through the Games, the Olympic Village was already emptying out as athletes finished their own competitions and went home or elsewhere before returning for the closing ceremony Feb. 24.

Anderson took time to attend Sunday evening vespers at the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City, and only eight people were there. “It’s important that a group of folks are providing a prayerful presence” during the Olympics, he said, adding that he believes praying every day and being united spiritually with all who were part of the Games made a difference.

One of the key components of Taizé prayer is that other Christian denominations are welcome and invited. Many of the chants recall Jesus’ suffering or are prayers of praise to the Son of God.

In Salt Lake, the services included several chants led by Anderson at the piano, plus vocalists, two guitarists, and musicians on violin, clarinet and bassoon. Also, Scripture was proclaimed in English, Spanish and German, another trait of the multi-lingual, multi-cultural influence of the Taizé experience.

Liz and Kurt Micka were pleasantly surprised by the prayer service. “This is totally awesome,” said Liz. “It’s exactly what I thought it would be, but better.”

Kurt added, “I didn’t expect the sense of peace.” The Mickas were both raised Catholic, but are now members of Salt Lake Christian Fellowship, a non-denominational church. They also were part of the Utah Games Network, which oversaw prayer experiences for the Olympics.

The UGN was a local initiative organized to include leaders of many congregations to “protect what the Body of Christ has done here—we didn’t want the Mormons bashed” by visitors to the Games, Liz said.

In addition to helping organize prayer around the Olympics, the UGN “prayer-walked” all the venues before the participants arrived, and held an eight-hour prayer rally in Rice-Eccles Stadium, site of the opening and closing ceremonies, before the Salt Lake Organizing Committee sealed it off to prepare for the events.

The Mickas wanted to experience Taizé prayer for themselves, since it was one of the prayer opportunities the UGN helped to organize. “I thought it was going to be a more typical Catholic Mass,” she said, noting that she was surprised and awed by the service.

Oak Park’s Anderson said he came to Salt Lake City with an open mind, and found locals “very passionate” about Taizé prayer. He also praised the hospitality of organizers and the people at St. Catherine’s.

Elizabeth Guss, a member of the parish and organizer of its Taizé prayer, said St. Catherine has hosted the prayer style monthly for more than eight years. She said that many people who attended the services in the first week of the Olympics came back again and again, including some Salt Lake City residents who had never experienced it.

She said the selection of St. Catherine for the Olympic prayer venue was serendipitous. The idea for Taizé prayer at the Games initially came from Jean E. Bross-Judge, who works for the American Bible Society. The ABS wanted to find a way to promote peace and reconciliation among people and Bross-Judge realized that the Olympics provided a unique possibility to reach a global audience.

When the folks at the ABS called the Salt Lake Diocese to ask whether there was a church near Olympic venues that could host Taizé prayer, Monica Howa-Johnson, the diocese’s hospitality coordinator for the Games, noted that her own parish, St. Catherine, already hosted Taizé prayer monthly and was close to the athlete’s Olympic Village.

The American Bible Society and Chicago’s GIA Publications, which distributes Taizé music in the United States, sponsored the prayer. The ABS provided editions of Bibles prepared especially for the Olympics and GIA distributed compact discs of Taizé music, all free to visitors to St. Catherine’s and six other diocesan Olympics hospitality centers.

Anderson, who visits the Taizé community in France each year, said the chance to meet people from around the world at the Winter Games made being there worthwhile. “I met people from six or seven different countries just over the weekend,” he said.

The Taizé prayer community at Ascension in Oak Park is probably one of the two largest regular gatherings in the country, he said, even though it grew from a small start of 30 people. Now, each Wednesday morning, about 20 gather for Taizé prayer at the parish and the monthly First Friday services bring 800 to 1,000.

The emphasis in Taizé prayer on peace and reconciliation were particularly appropriate for the Olympics, especially in light of situations around the world, Anderson said.

He also noted that encouraging others in prayer helps. He recalled that Brother Roger, founder of the Taizé community in France, once said, “It’s much more difficult to pray alone. And praying with others can be a great strengthening.”

And for the Olympics—whose motto is “Altius. Citius. Fortius.” “Higher. Faster. Stronger.”—spiritual strength can be as important as physical strength.



Gunty, a former Chicagoan, is associate publisher of the Catholic Sun, diocesan paper of the Diocese of Phoenix.