COEXIST !!!!! London 2012 Games leave space for spirituality - Vatican Insider

07/24/2012 

London 2012 Games leave space for spirituality

 

LONDON: THE ATHLETES ARRIVE

In the multi-religious temple that is the Olympic village, a Catholic priest, an Anglican reverend and a practicing Muslim experience a religious function together

VATICAN INSIDER STAFFROME

Christofer Jamison an athletic sixty year old cleric celebrates the first part. Susan Blackall, an elderly female priest and Yussef, 40, a soldier in uniform follow him in a sort of relay of faith.

Looking at them holding hands in the little prayer room of the Olympic media village, they seem like three old neo-catechumenal friends: then when you get closer and you realise one of the is a Catholic monsignor, another is an Anglican reverend and a practicing Muslim who are experiencing a religious function together.

^{_{This is the "miracle" of the Olympics, thanks to which all religions get to stand up on the podium: Anglicans, Catholics, Muslims, Jews and Baptists alike.}} 

Everyone catches the Olympic spirit, even on the pulpit of prayers. Priests, rabbis, imams and reverends unite and work side by side in the Multi-Faith Room, a temple with rooms for the five main faiths.

There is a sign reading "All are welcome" at the entrance of a little room situated close to the grounds where athletes will be competing but in a corner away from all the noise and glitz of the Games. The walls of this silent room are painted white and there are no religious symbols around. On the table are copies of the sacred scriptures of the various religions which give away the spirit of the initiative.

“There are some priests there to welcome passers-by. We want to allow everyone religious comfort,” Tony Miles explains. Miles is a Methodist minister and one of the team leaders of the initiative launched especially for the Games by the Anglican Church and taken up by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and by British religious congregations.

This ecumenical initiative culminates with a joint prayer session on Saturday afternoon. Pastors get together and read out the prayer requests written on cards by their heterogeneous Olympic flock and left in a basket at the centre of the meditation room. These are read out at random and everyone then prays together, avoiding confusion because - they explain – “sport and religion unite people but they do not whisk them all together.”

Fr. Christopher Jamison is the Catholic priest who will be taking part in this strange multi-faith team of chaplains.

 Then there is Susan Blackall: a kind American woman of minute stature with tidy, white hair and two blue eyes that light up the speaker as they listen to him/her; Susan is an Anglican priest who goes round the field  searching for souls to help and then welcomes them in the Multi-Faith Room.

In the room there is a constant bustle of people of all races and religions. When one enters the room, on the right there is a welcome corner for Muslims, with a carpet that they can use to pray facing in the direction of Mecca.

Assistance is available to faithful 24/7. The need for faith, just like the Olympic spirit, never stops.