The Multi-Faith Centre

Monday morning saw me back on duty, and back at the bus stop in the pouring rain as I headed into the Athletes' Village for another early shift. The routine once there was much the same as usual, a combination of being in the Multi-Faith Centre in case anyone called by, and of being out and about visiting around the Village, and talking to people wherever they might be. Today was actually a busy day in the Multi-Faith Centre and I think we had the most visitors we've had in one day. These included

• a person who'd been to a Prayer and Bible Study session earlier on in the Paralympics who wanted to talk again (she later came back again to attend the evening Bible Study and Prayer session led by one of the other chaplains);
• people involved in another future major event who wanted to familiarise themselves with they might do about 'Religious Services Provision' when planning their event (people from London 2012 and Sochi 2014 have already been round);
• someone who is a lay pastor of his church alongside his Monday to Friday job who wanted to make contact;
• someone who wanted us to pray for his work colleague;
• an athlete who wanted to share something and ask for prayer;
• people we'd visited in various places who came to see what our place was like

I've realised that I've never really described the Multi-Faith Centre, so here goes:
Sadly, we're at the end of a very long corridor which might put some people off, but it has been decorated with pictures and hangings to make it less stark. At the end of the corridor, we have a comfortable foyer with easy chairs, a television, tea & coffee making facilities, and a table with computer etc for our administrator - he shares with the chaplains the role of greeting visitors. Chaplains often sit here when they're in the Centre, and if anyone just wants a chat rather than a confidential conversation this is a nice place for it to happen. Leading off the foyer we have several other rooms. There is a small prayer room, often used by the Hindus and Buddhists but available for other faiths too; a larger prayer room, mostly used by the Christians for larger gatherings and for Roman Catholic Mass, but also available to other faiths if they need a large room (eg for Muslim Friday prayers); a Muslim Prayer Room for men; a smaller prayer room which was used as the Muslim Prayer Room for women during the Olympics, but is now also used as a smaller prayer room for whichever faith wants to use it; a nicely furnished room to be used as a counselling room or for any confidential conversations; and an office-type room, which can also be used for private conversations with people who call in; a storeroom; and two toilets. The design of the Centre provides both challenge and opportunity - a challenge to have such multi-use rooms and provide spaces for all major faiths whilst still enabling each to keep their own integrity, and an opportunity to demonstrate practical interfaith cooperation. Several people have commented that it'd be good if more of the world could cooperate as we do here.....