On the first Friday of October in 1992, Ascension Church in Oak Park hosted its first Taizé prayer service. Oct. 4 marked the beginning of the monthly service’s 33rd year in the church, when more than 200 people came together to sing, pray and rest in silence.

David Anderson, director of pastoral music and liturgies for the Ascension Campus of Ascension and St. Edmund Parish, had visited Taizé, France, while on a choir tour as an undergraduate studying music.

He was inspired by the ecumenical community there, and the simplicity and peace of the services it holds three times a day, and he wanted to bring that peace to Oak Park, he said.

“We really try to model the prayer as it’s prayed in France,” said Anderson, who has visited the Taizé community roughly every other year since his first visit. “People want to pray that way locally. It’s really an intentional thing. I think initially they are drawn to the contemplative nature of the prayer. It’s basically songs or chants and silence.”

The service takes place at 7:30 p.m. the first Friday of each month except January, when it is held on Jan. 1, the World Day of Prayer for Peace.

At Ascension, participants are greeted at the door with a worship aid with music for the evening and candles. As musicians play in the candle-lit sanctuary, a sign reminds them to maintain silence as they enter the dimly lit nave.

The songs are all simple melodies, sung in English or Latin. During the Psalm, children are invited to come forward to light their candles, then bring the flame to the congregation.

After a Gospel reading, during another song, participants bring their candles to the sanctuary and stand them in sand-filled containers so they can all shine together.

Then there is 10 minutes of silence, for participants to listen for God in their hearts.

The service concludes with music, prayers of the faithful, the Our Father and the sign of peace.

“It’s a very simple prayer,” Anderson said. “People are kind of tuned into the ecumenical nature. It’s really about praying for unity for the Body of Christ and the unity that we share because of our common baptism. It’s praying for healing of brokenness and wholeness.”

While many of the monks at Taizé are Catholic, many are not, and the participants in the monthly service at Ascension are no different.

Rev. Tim Hoekstra, pastor of Suburban Life Community Church in La Grange Park, and his wife, Laura Hoekstra, have been coming regularly for more than 20 years.

“I’m a pastor and a minister myself,” Hoekstra said. “This is a place where I receive from God rest and peace. So much of the time I’m giving, and here I am filled.”

“I just love the ecumenical piece of it,” Laura Hoekstra said. “I like that we are coming together with a desire for peace and unity when there is so much division in the world and in the church. I find it very comforting.”

Deedee Parnell, an Oak Park resident, also has been coming for more than 20 years.

“I love the settings and the songs,” Parnell said. “I love all the instruments.”

Before the COVID-19 shutdown, sometimes 500 to 600 people would fill the church for Taizé prayer every month, Anderson said. Now the group usually has 200 or 300 people present, and another 100 or so watching online and praying.

Susan, who declined to share her last name, said that she first came at the invitation of a friend 24 or 25 years ago.

“It was a really difficult time in my life,” said Susan, who has since become a parishioner at Ascension-St. Edmund. “And the Taizé service was an hour of beautiful peace. That helped sustain me through that time. I love to sing. I love the music. And I love that Christians of all denominations come together.”

She keeps coming, she said, because of the friends she comes with, and because of the importance of people praying together.

“It’s everyone praying for peace,” she said. “With all the conflict in the country and in our own lives. It just seems so helpful.”

“This is part of my spiritual practice,” said Maureen Stanley, who has been attending the monthly prayer for 27 years, even though she has moved away from Oak Park. “There’s something really special that happens here.”