The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, is leading a group of forty young people aged 18 to 25 from York and Durham to the ecumenical community of Taizé in France.

Based in Saône-et-Loire in Burgundy, the Taizé Community is an ecumenical Christian monastic composed of over 100 brothers. Over 100,000 young people from around the world make pilgrimages to Taizé each year, predominantly during the summer months, for prayer, Bible study and communal work.

This will be the third consecutive year that Dr Sentamu has led a group of young people to Taizé. This year’s pilgrims include 21 young people from the York Diocese and 19 from the Diocese of Durham. The Archbishop will lead the group together with Rev Adam Reed and Rev Rachel Marriott.

The group will attend one of the weekly meetings run for young people throughout the year from Sunday-to-Sunday. It is thought that up to 5,000 young people will be in attendance at the meetings that run throughout the summer.

Dr Sentamu said: “I always return from Taizé blessed by the brothers who worship, inspired by the young people I accompany and filled with a renewed wonder at the goodness of God. I am looking forward to going again this year with a new group of young people to be blessed, inspired and amazed anew at the good things God is doing.”