Article Added On: October 13, 2008 - about 1 year ago
Title: Spirituality at the Games
Original URL: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=20090212-95d3-47ec-84e6-6d25eee3bbae
Author: Douglas Todd
Publication: Vancouver Sun
Publication Date: October 13, 2008 - about 1 year ago
Faith Groups: Muslim, Roman Catholic, Anglicans, Evangelical Christian, Mainline Protestant, Other Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Baha'i
Themes: Religion and society, religious tolerance/intolerance

Abstract: Vancouver Olympic officials are negotiating with Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish and Hindu groups to serve athletes' religious needs.

The dream of a free-standing permanent interspiritual centre at the Olympic Village in Vancouver has failed to be realized, but negotiations are still underway to satisfy the spiritual needs of hockey players, ski jumpers and ice skaters during the 2010 Winter Games.

The Vancouver organizing committee (Vanoc) is privately negotiating with a variety of Canadian Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish and Hindu groups about which individual clergy will be allowed to temporarily provide direct support to the more than 5,500 Olympic athletes and officials attending the Games.

Tim Morrison, managing director of the Olympic villages in Vancouver and Whistler, acknowledged Friday it is potentially "difficult" to negotiate with an array of leaders from five major world religions about which of their clergy will be invited to serve as chaplains to athletes.

Still, even with the failure to date of the dream of a major freestanding interspiritual centre at Vancouver's Olympic Village, Morrison said Vanoc will be offering multifaith services in both Vancouver and Whistler.

As at most other Olympic Games, athletes and officials will be able to use the multifaith facilities for religious services, prayer, meditation, relaxation and spiritual counselling.

"It's very important to some athletes" to receive spiritual support before and after Olympic competitions, said Morrison.

In the past several years, with the informal approval of Vancouver city council, a coalition of diverse spiritual leaders tried to gather support for a permanent interspiritual centre at the Olympic Village at the southeast corner of False Creek. They imagined serving Christians, Jews, Muslims, secular humanists and others in the same building.

But the visionary project has failed to turn into reality for a combination of reasons, including a lack of private donors, internal disagreements among the interspiritual advocates and the high cost of land at the False Creek site.

Vancouver Rabbi David Mivasair, one of the early champions of the centre, said the price for purchasing a building lot went through the roof after the Millennium Development Corp. bought the city-owned land on False Creek at an unexpectedly high price.

In addition to building facilities for the temporary Olympic Village, Millennium is trying to recoup its investment by mostly offering luxury condominiums after the Games. That came after a majority of city council members dropped earlier plans for the site to include a substantial amount of low-cost housing and a possible interspiritual centre.

What will happen after the Games to the buildings that will house the temporary multifaith facilities at B.C.'s two Olympic villages?

The Multifaith Centre at the Whistler Olympic Village will be turned into a youth hostel.

The multifaith building at the Olympic Village on False Creek will be turned into a department store.

Even though most Winter Olympic athletes hail from predominantly Christian and secular countries, the International Olympic Committee requires that every host country provide spiritual services to adherents of the world's five major religions: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism.

Vanoc, therefore, is providing a variety of rooms at each multifaith centre for adherents of each of these faiths. The rooms will include folding chairs and allow chaplains to use a variety of religious paraphernalia, icons and symbols.

Muslim athletes will be provided separate prayer rooms for men and women, as well as separate washrooms with wudus, where the athletes can ritually wash their feet before services.

The IOC does not formally require host countries to provide space or direct spiritual support for Sikhs, Zoroastrians, neo-pagans or a host of smaller religions.

However, Morrison said, Vanoc will provide Olympic athletes and officials with a full directory of places to go to in Metro Vancouver and Whistler for religious leaders and services to suit their spiritual practice.

Saying Vanoc is already in discussion with various religious leaders about which clerics might be appointed to serve as designated 2010 Olympic chaplains, Morrison acknowledged it won't be easy to narrow down the list.

"Especially since we're trying to keep the numbers really low."

Asked about the religious controversy that erupted over the peculiar way the Olympic Games in Beijing provided spiritual services this summer to athletes, Morrison said he was "not able to speak to" the question.

Many athletes in China complained about the multifaith centre at Beijing's Olympic Village, saying its staffing and services were woefully inadequate.

That was in large part because China, which requires most religious groups to operate under state-controlled organizations, banned foreign chaplains from working at the Olympic Village multifaith centre.

Many athletes were frustrated with state-employed Chinese pastors, imams and other clerics conducting services in broken English, French, Italian, Korean, Arabic and other languages. Most also did not have experience with sports or foreigners.

In contrast, the Olympic Village at the 2004 Summer Games in Athens had more than 100 chaplains from various religions who spoke several dozen languages. Many had extensive experience counselling elite athletes.

When Morrison was in China this summer and checked out the multifaith centre at the Beijing Olympics, he said he found it poorly located and distant from where most athletes congregated.

"I didn't see it was getting a lot of use."

In contrast, Morrison believes the multifaith centres at B.C.'s two Olympic Villages are centrally located. Declining to name which clerics Vanoc has contacted about providing spiritual services and counselling, Morrison said an announcement would be made in about six to eight months.