Religion: The Brothers of Taize

For its 20th anniversary last week, the little monastery in the village of Taizé, just north of the medieval monachal center of Cluny, held a major celebration. All 45 of the brothers were on hand for the occasion, half of them traveling to France from work abroad (two came from an ecumenical center at Stoughton, Mass.), and in their white, hooded robes they were an impressive token of devotion in the tiny chapel. But no outsider would readily recognize the most unusual thing about the monks of Taizé, who call themselves simply members of "the community": they are not Catholic; every...