the next European meetings will take place in Paris

“To grow together in the hope that inhabits the Christians that we are.” Bishop Ullrich thus explains the invitation he made some time ago to the ecumenical community of Taizé to come and experience its end-of-year meeting in Paris. An invitation accepted by Brother Matthew, prior of the community, and his brothers, and which he had the joy of officially announcing during the Monday evening prayer in Tallinn (Estonia), where the current European meeting is taking place .

“Throughout this year 2025,” adds Mgr Ullrich, “we will be able to live as true pilgrims of hope, as brothers and sisters who want to work for this world in which they live. (…) We need to be witnesses together.”

The announcement of these meetings which will take place from December 28, 2025 to January 1, 2026 is an opportunity to recall that gatherings of this type in Paris have already taken place in the capital in 1978, 1983, 1987, 1994 and 2002, each time bringing together several tens of thousands of young Christians of various faiths and origins, and from many countries. An important meeting, especially as it will be co-organized by the leaders of Christian churches in Paris and throughout Île-de-France.

“As Brother Matthew invites us in his Letter for 2025, underline Orthodox Metropolitan Dimitrios, Protestant Pastor Krieger and Mgr de Moulins-Beaufort in a joint press release, we are called today to “hope beyond all hope “And we believe that this gathering in Paris will allow us to experience in a very concrete way how shared hospitality is a beautiful and true sign of hope.”

Now it remains to prepare for this gathering. Over the past months, the brothers of Taizé, a small community of whom resides in Pantin, began to contact local and civil authorities, including the Paris town hall and the Île-de-France region. Teams of volunteers will be set up in the coming weeks in the parishes to prepare accommodation for the young people who will come, mainly in host families but also in collective accommodation. A beautiful way to end the jubilee year, also dedicated to the theme of hope.