Partly sunny 21°C in MK

Wow time passes so fast and we cannot believe that our time in England is already over.
In our last week we continued our activities with Church Without Walls. On Saturday evening we celebrated together with the community a party, enjoying a lot of food, laughter and for sure dancing together! A part from that there was a moment to reflect on what Church Without Walls is about and where they want to go in the future.

A special moment for us was the Sunday morning eucharist which we lead in Taizé style together Keith. It was a pleasure for us that Anthony could join the prayer.

Finally we managed to visit Milton Keynes with Anthony who showed us around and shared a great trip when we went to Turvey, a monastery nearby, singing Simon and Garfunkel songs together in the car. :)

As we had more free time in this week, we went to London, discovered new places like a café in a church and had a lovely time there.

Now, we are looking forward to our last prayer this evening, which we prepared with a lot of love and at the same time we are sad about it, because it means we have to say goodbye to all the amazing people we met.
This month has been a great oppurtunity for us to learn about life in community. It enriched us in an unexpected way and we realised that sometimes, in very special moments, just being is enough to make ourselves and people around us happy.
We give thanks from our heart to ...
...Ruth, for her positive energy and always, although being very busy, taking care of us,
... Anthony, for his incredible warm welcome, for his joy of live and for his love to music he shared with us,
... Keith, for great deep talks from which we took a lot of new knowledge and for sharing with us good food and the passion for wine,
... all the families and members of Church Without Walls as much as the St. Michael's Priory for welcoming us various times, joining our prayers and sharing their experience, ideas and feelings.

THANK YOU!!!

Clear 18˚C in MK

Hello guys! We're going to tell you some more of the things we did during the last days.

We had a very nice tea princess party in Ruth's garden. Some people brought very tasty cakes. Old and young enjoyed the afternoon chatting and sharing with the others. It was a charity event where we collected 400£ to donate it to a children's association.

We had the great chance to go to Greenbelt, a very important Christian festival in the UK. The idea of Greenbelt is not only sharing about Christian believe but about what is happening in the world in a political, environmental, spiritual way that we experienced through participating in very interesting talks. A part from that we listened to good music and were impressed by spectacular performances. 

It was very sad to leave after the last concert. The band Hope&Social invited people from the festival to join them on the stage. In the last song there were about 40 people singing and playing instruments. It was a very touching moment as everybody could feel the joy of the artists, professionals and amateurs.

We are very thankful for everybody that made it possible. We really enjoyed this experience.

During this busy weekend we came back for some hours to experience another way of celebrating Sunday mass, the Forest Church. We met in St Michael's Priory to have breakfast and for a short prayer and afterwards we went to do a nice walk where we even saw some deers. We really liked the idea of meeting the community outside in the nature.

Wow, more than half of our stay has already past. It has been only two weeks but we feel like part of the communities. Although the people we meet are very diverse and come from different backgrounds, it is a pleasure to see how the young community grows with them and how everybody grows with in the community. For sure, there are some difficulties in creating something that suits everybody's needs.

This gives us an example of how different they live religion from what we knew before. 

It is difficult for us to put into words what we are living here and express our joy of meeting these welcoming persons. Being invited to families to share their lunch, knitting and eating soup with old ladies and men, praying with anyone who finds his way to our little church, all this is making our stay more colorful and is a real enrichment for us.

Especially in this new area, we realised how important a community is, in which you can feel part of something.

We are glad to continue learning more during our last week here.

Shower 21˚C in MK

Hello! It's us again! We had a great weekend as we went to.....
Cambridge!!!

Keith and his wife Chris brought us to visit Cambridge on Saturday. Keith is a priest and he collaborates with Church Without Walls and he studied and taught for several years in the University of Cambridge. So we had the best guide, who not only told us funny stories about life in Cambridge but also showed us secret places.

We went inside of Trinity College and Jesus College and we saw their dinning rooms and their beautiful chapels, that were actually churches. In Cambridge there's a funny tradition to go on the river Cam by punting. After we enjoyed our walks through the city we end up in the famous pub The Eagle, where the structure of the DNA was discovered.

We are very thankful to Keith and Chris for the amazing day we spent together.
Very close to the place we are living there is a Buddhist Temple. We had the possibility to join one of their prayers on Sunday morning. It was very different of what we know but still was very nice to discover a ritual from another religion.

After that we went to Café Church, one of the activities of CWW, a bit similar to Dinner Church. We met in the pub and while drinking and eating we shared a moment of prayer and reflection. We went to have lunch with a family from the community. We want to thank all the people who is welcoming us for a meal, we are very happy to share closer with some of you and we get to know better the community.

Every Monday we join the knitting club where we have nice conversation with the women.
On the 8th of September there will be a Taizé Prayer in the Priory in Willen. We already started to prepare it and we are excited about it.
Yesterday evening we did our first small prayer in the Priory. It was very intense as a lot of the people living here at the moment joint us in our prayer and songs. We are glad to bring the Taizé spirit also to St Michael.

And today we helped in the Family Fun Day. A lot of children came with their families to play and spend the day together. In the afternoon there was a space for families with children with special needs to come and play. We also had fun while doing crafts or looking after the children.

Thank you for reading us! See you soon!!

Mist 15˚C in Milton Keynes

Wooow! Today it's been one week since we are here, and we had enough time to do a lot of activities and to meet many great people!

On Wednesday we joined the Fairytale Picnic in Broughton School. We were about 150 people!! Lots of children were dressed up as princesses and superheroes. We were also princesses!!

We helped children to do some nice crafts such as crowns, shields and wands. Moreover there was a nice corner with a story teller, Ruth, which children liked a lot!

We even had to lead the midday prayer with our costumes on!! It was a funny and sunny day and we enjoyed our time.

In the evening we participate in Sacred Space, a moment of silence and meditation. We were few people but it was a good moment to find some peace and to think about our busy day.

On Thursday we went to Ruth's house where some mothers gather to share some reflections about their faith and a little prayer. We looked after their children but we also had the opportunity to talk with them. As the theme was the prayer Ruth showed them a little video about Taizé. They were very interested and we were happy to answer a few questions about it.

In the middle of the week Anthony, the prior of St Michael, the place where we are staying, arrived and we were happy to finally meet him. We had a good and informative talk together. He gave us some work to do in the house and we are glad to collaborate with the community.

In the end of the week we had some new people in St Lawrence, we welcome everyone who want to take part in our midday prayers.

We are enjoying the beautiful surroundings. During our cycling routine we are delighted by the wonderful landscape.

Have a nice weekend!

We arrived!

Hello everyone!! We are happy to star officially the blog. That means that our adventure has begun.

After spending a week in Taizé...

On Saturday, after a long journey,  we arrived at St Michael's Priory in Milton Keynes where we will be living the next month. 

They welcomed us very warmly. The house is in a very beautiful and silent environment. For the moment it has been sunny and warm, we are happy; specially our Spanish friend.

On Sunday we started our work with Church Without Walls joining their Dinner Church. CWW is a new community lead by Ruth, a very active and engaged priest. She is bringing the church closer to the people by doing a lot of different activities. For example Dinner Church that is a moment of gathering and sharing food, prayer and talks.

This is the church of St Lawrence, where we celebrate our midday Taizé prayers. Everybody is invited to join us in the short break of our busy life to have a moment of prayer and silence.
We, as volunteers, prepare and lead the midday prayers. In the morning and in the evening we join the prayers in St Michael.

We are happy to be here and we will soon share more about our stay!

Before our arrival

We are Bianca and Franzi from Germay, and Miriam from Spain, and we will live as a small temporary community in Milton Keynes (England). From 13th August to 10th September we will be welcomed by "Church without Walls", taking part in the activities of the local community and sharing our times of prayer.
Taizé is a monastery in France that welcomes 1,000s of young people from across the world and they have challenged groups of young people to spend a month living a life of prayer and solidarity in different communities throughout the world- and we got Church without Walls in Milton Keynes! 

We are very excited with the project and looking forward to start working and living in this very welcoming parish.