Churches team up for Olympic Songs of Praise

Anglican church refurbished to provide official visitor centre; chaplains recruited for Olympic Village ministry

English speaking churches of several denominations in Athens are to be featured on BBC TV's Songs of Praise on 8 August. The churches are working together to provide Christian chaplaincy to athletes and visitors.

The Revd Michael Counsell, who assists the Church of England's senior chaplain in Greece, Canon Malcolm Bradshaw, is quoted in the BBC Songs of Praise magazine (Summer issue) saying that the programme "has done us a very good turn".

"When we had a meeting with the producers, there were representatives of the Greek Evangelical Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church and a new Greek Orthodox congregation that worships in English. We realised that this was the first time they had all sat down and talked together."

Canon Bradshaw has been at the forefront of negotiating with the Olympic authorities to establish a chaplaincy centre for athletes of all faiths, nationalities and languages at the games, with support and advice from John Boyers of the sports ministry SCORE.

Twenty-eight Anglican and Protestant chaplains from around the world have been invited to share in the ministry, paying their own fares to Greece and being offered only basic living accommodation. A further 23 will act as chaplains to the Paralympics which follow.

The religious services centre for athletes in the Olympic Village has been provided by the Athens Olympic Committee, which has worked closely with the churches. All chaplains working there have signed a commitment not to proselytise.

"Athletes are emotionally vulnerable at the time when they are competing, and they do not want anyone trying to persuade them to change their religious adherence," Michael Counsell told the Diocese in Europe recently. "However, chaplains of course will want to share with them the good news that God loves them."

St Paul's Anglican Church is providing one of the official visitor centres for the Games, a project which has entailed considerable refurbishment of the building to meet legal requirements and to adapt it for a fresh form of ministry.

It has raised almost £40,000 to install air conditioning, toilets, disabled access, a communications centre, a prayer and counselling centre, office equipment and a part-time centre manager. It will be staffed 13 hours a day providing a welcome, daily worship, advice centre and sight-seeing suggestions.

"Local Christians in Greece are distinctly nervous about the enormous challenges which face them at the time of the Olympics and Paralympics, but they are determined to work together to put on the best welcome they can provide," says Michael Counsell. "They have faith that God will give them the strength and resources.