Church Bishop Rejoices at London 2012 Olympic Bid Win

After the historic victory for Britain to host the Olympics and Paralympics in 2012, the Rt Revd Stephen Olivier, Bishop of Stepney, rejoiced and said that staging the 2012 Olympics in the East of London could leave a legacy of culture and education, and transform the area.

"I am over the moon. Delighted. It has been over two years of very hard work by the bid team, and we have been in close involvement with them for the past 12 months.

"It will have a benefit for the whole country, and especially for the East End, that it would be hard to over-estimate. The opportunities are wider than the Games themselves. The movement itself is about mutual understanding, friendship, solidarity and fair play, and about blending sport with education. If we get this right, it will be a legacy of culture and education for the area.

"I am working very closely with the Bishop of Barking on this, because the Lea Valley, where a lot of the development will happen, runs between our two areas. We have done some initial preparations, but we did not want to do too much before we knew what would happen. We will have a meeting within a month or so, and we will want to involve our ecumenical partners.

"As a result of our experience with the Millennium Dome, we want to make sure that it is also a multi-faith venture."

However, he said that the reaction to the bid had not been "wall-to-wall acceptance and welcome" because of the cost and disruption, though most of the development will be on waste land. "But it is not a city centre," he said.

The cost of preparing the sites for 2012 is estimated to be nearly £2.4 billion, according to the London bid committee. Most of the development will take place in the derelict Lower Lea Valley. Most of its land is toxic and includes old industrial sites and sewage works.

Bishop Oliver said that the Olympic character "resonated closely with the Christian gospel".

He said, "St Paul and others speak of that sense of the games: I run with great resolution the race that is set before me." In the same way, the Olympics were about the promotion of human dignity and the joy of effort.

The four-time Olympic gold medallist Sir Matthew Pinsent had flown to Singapore on Sunday evening to help promote the British bid. His father, The Revd Ewen Pinsent, said "All those involved did a first rate job and worked extremely hard. It will be an enormous boost for so many people, and it may affect Matthew's decision in how he gets involved in sport generally in the future."

Director of Christians in Sport, Graham Daniels, and an associate staff member at St Andrew the Great in Cambridge expressed his joy over the victory of the bid. "First, we want to serve the Olympics, as we have been involved in chaplaincy for the Olympics for many years; and second, we want to ensure the Christian witness in the world of sport in the run-up and during the Olympics is maximised. We will be working with the churches to help do so."

"We will repay this honour by staging the greatest Olympics and Paralympics ever shown," said Ken Livingstone, the Lord Mayor of London, saying that it was one of the best days that London had ever had.