An interfaith committee meets at the Olympic village for the last formal meeting before the games begin. The Mohammed caricatures controversy is in full swing. The two Islamic leaders arrive one hour late and are greeted warmly by the rabbi. The meeting begins and takes two hours — mostly because the members keep taking calls on their cell phone. Just as I get judgemental, my own one rings. Hoist by my own petard.
Timings of services are discussed. The Buddhist is anxious because his service of contemplation is at the same time as the Protestant worship. Although he is in the next room, he feels that rambunctious hymn singing would destroy his meditative hour. Everyone is sympathetic and the Protestant time is changed.
I go back in the evening to await the vast crowds coming for the Protestant Bible study. No one shows. The Romanian Orthodox priest turns up early and begins the service. For Orthodoxy, worship is an end in itself: to worship even with only the priest is normal. Lack of a congregation is of no great import — although he does have one: me, the Catholic priest and the volunteer minding the door. He chants and sings, sometimes accompanied by a man he has brought with him, kisses the cross and the icons, blesses the room by sprinkling water from a small dried bouquet of something (he later tells me it is dried basil; that in Romania it is used for sacred purposes while in Italy — he chuckles — it is added to tomato sauce to mix with your pasta. Each to their own.) I find it strangely moving. He blesses the three of us individually, shaking the basil leaves and spraying us with the water. I do feel blessed. He kisses my cheeks and I feel neighbourly, brotherly. This is surely what church is about. Where two or three are gathered…
Opening ceremonies take place tonight. Tickets can be as much as 800 euros. The church puts the events on the big screen and we watch them there.
In the evening, to Torre Pellice for the annual bonfire celebration to mark the 1848 Edict of Toleration for the Waldensians. (The Reformed Church in Italy — founded in Lyon around 1175 as a movement of itinerant preachers, they adhered to the Reformation in 1532, having been variously excommunicated, persecuted, ghettoized, tortured and murdered by the thousands by various Catholic rulers in Europe. Miraculously they survived. They were given civil freedom in 1848 and recognized as a church in 1984… things take time in Italy. The religious freedom also included Jews.)
The moderator cleverly reworks the Olympic slogan, Passion Lives Here. Passion does live here, a passion for freedom, for justice, for human rights and human dignity; not just religious freedom, but also freedom from hunger, from want, from war, from tyranny of any sort.
I get back in time to go to ice hockey — one of the chaplains has been able to get some free tickets. It's Italy vs. Germany, so perhaps not the highlight of hockey prowess, but at least they are fairly evenly matched and it is a tight game. My colleagues have kept the Canada tickets for themselves!
For the first time in Northern Italian Church history, all the Protestant churches have organised a day conference of lectures and singing to culminate with a Christian concert in the evening. There is a great buzz and people are really engaged. All this has come about because the churches have been working closely together over the past four years preparing for the Olympics. It is a positive result: Reformed, Methodist, Baptist, Adventist, Salvation Army all coming together. Guiseppe Platone, pastor of the Waldensian Tempio in Turin and head of the interfaith committee for the Olympics, is delighted and intends to follow-up with further joint endeavours with the minority Protestant community. It is important in a country where Catholicism is part of the social fabric. As one person reminds me, “the Pope just visits your country. He is at home here.”
There is a group here from Vancouver to see how Olympic chaplaincy is organized in preparation for the 2010 games in Vancouver-Whistler. Mostly they are from the Salvation Army and have some experience in this type of organizational structure and sports ministry.
They are staying in the Waldensian guest house in Torre Pellice, the Vatican of the Reformed Church here. Until 1848 the Protestants were confined for hundreds of years to the mountains. They could not live any lower than Torre Pellice. After 1848, they built a church, Synod Hall, church offices, a school and cultural centre in this gateway to the mountains.
The joint service of the English, French and Italian congregations is well attended. The Vancouver representatives give a brief presentation. As a Confession of Faith to recite together, I have abridged the Accra Confession from WARC 2004. It fits in with our theme of freedom. The whole service works really well and we are all pleased with the mix and the very good-sized congregation.
Some of the teams have brought along chaplains and this seems to me a better way of doing ministry with the athletes — these chaplains can build relationships with the teams over years of accompaniment and be much more engaged in offering support than a random stranger sitting in an interfaith centre for two weeks.
The closing ceremony is an extravaganza, and I am happy to have been invited. Full of action, music, fun as well as Olympic ideals (if you suspend your cynicism and ignore all the corruption at the heart of the IOC over the years) it is a magnificent farewell from Torino to the 20th Winter Games. After so much questioning and soul searching, the city really embraced the Games and gave a very warm welcome to all the visitors: the Italian people were full of enthusiasm and excitement during the 16 days of the games. And the city has looked great too — and what a fantastic buzz has been going around with all kinds of languages spoken and people dressed in their national colours — there were seas of red and white. The hope of many is that it will continue and Turin will develop and prosper for the future.
