Olympic Chaplains Told Not to Proselytise

With the Olympic Games 2004 about to commence in Greece, the forty-five Anglican and Protestant chaplains that will be ministering in the Olympic village in Athens have signed an agreement stating that they will not proselytise during the event.

The 45 chaplains make up nearly half of the total who have been invited to join the event at the Religious Services Centre. The chaplains, who are all volunteers, will be working in the Olympic village where members from all the main faith groups will be accommodated.

"The authorities were only prepared to deal with established Christian Churches within the country with whom they had good relations. The idea of sports ministries from abroad coming in and doing their own thing was out of the question,” said Malcolm Bradshaw, senior Anglican chaplain in Athens.

Bradshaw reported that the chaplains’ places in the Olympic village were at stake unless they agreed to the measures, and this of course would have severely limited the chaplains’ work if they had been forced to move the Religious Services Centre away from the athletes.

"We won a major battle when the authorities allowed us freedom of the Village, although they could not understand why we needed to be outside the Religious Services Centre. We now have to act responsibly, and anyone who doesn’t will lose their accreditation immediately."

The discussions with the ATHOC resulted in a code of practice being drawn up by Canon Bradshaw. The document highlighted the difference in "unsolicited spiritual conversations" and "talking about beliefs" when people ask.

The document also contained more than a page on proselytisation:

"Here in Greece, where nearly all the population are Orthodox, attempts to win anyone away from Orthodoxy could endanger the delicate and friendly relationships which the minority churches have built up with the Orthodox and the government, and it is the local churches who will have to live with the consequences. There is no need to mention the situation worldwide between Islam and Christianity."

Evangelistic groups from across the world have been very used to heavy involvement at such events, and Bradshaw said, "They (evangelistic groups) have both money and experience on their side. What those who don’t live here have to remember is that this is a country where Greek Orthodoxy is enshrined in the whole culture."

Canon Bradshaw admitted that he had not expected to be heading up the whole chaplaincy work. He praised the support he had received from the Revd John Boyers, the national director of SCORE, a sports ministry in the UK, which had organised chaplaincy work at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 1992.

Mr Boyers, who is a Baptist minister, is one of the chaplains in the Anglican-Protestant group. He will help co-ordinate the running of the work during the games.

Mr Boyers said: "Chaplaincy and evangelism are very different. SCORE specialises in Christian chaplaincy work with a proven track record. Naturally we want to be out there in the Olympic village, where there are 15,000 athletes, along with officials and trainers. From our experience, there will be a lot of contact, which may range from advice in a crisis to simpler request for prayer."