Inter-Faith Chaplaincy Plays Role At Games

February 10, 2010

Author: Tony Gallagher

Source: The Montreal Gazette/The Vancouver Province

http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/2010wintergames/Inter+faith+chaplaincy+plays+role+Games/2542982/story.html

For some athletes at the Vancouver Olympics, medals aren’t a singular goal.

Some are looking to learn more about life, and some even look to improve their faith in God, as one of the most anticipated moments of their lives approaches and passes, sometimes with great elation or disappointment.

That’s where the inter-faith chaplaincy at the athletes villages in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C., come in.

David Wells, the head of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada and the man assembling this mission, says the Winter Olympics break down as a pretty Christian event.

“Of all the athletes who express a choice of faith or belief system, and most of them do, over 70 per cent are Christians, somewhere between seven and nine per cent are Buddhist and Muslim, with the others coming in a lot lower in the percentages, the Jewish and Hindu about one per cent,” says Wells, who has conducted spiritual services at previous Olympics in Turin, Athens and Beijing.