An
ecumenical community and retreat center near Cluny in
France. The
community consists of about one hundred
brothers who have taken vows which are similar to those of many
Roman Catholic religious orders, even though many
brothers are from
Churches of the
Reformation, as the community styles them, and are thus
Anglicans,
Methodists,
Presbyterians,
Lutherans and other churches from the
Reformed tradition.
As a
retreat center, it attracts tens of thousands of young people from around the globe, mainly
Christians and
nominal Christians from
Europe, during the summer. Once there, it's like a gigantic post-secondary school
summer camp with focii on
worship in the Church of the Reconciliation, making friends, trying to translate between half-a-dozen or more
languages, and keeping everyone else fed and the garbage bins empty.
Known especially for the distinctive forms of
chant which are really quite similar to the styles of
chant used by the various
Orthodox Churches.
Worth going to at least once in a lifetime, if not many more times.