Sport is on the agenda, if you hadn’t noticed that is. Aside from the 2010 Football World Cup, we’ve still got the Youth Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games to come, with the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand in 2011 and then our own Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012.

Although I was never particularly sporty, I’ve always been interested in the Olympics. Thus I was really excited when last year I took on the job of being the Catholic Church’s coordinator for the 2012 Games in London. I never expected, however, to come across a minefield of fabulous material written about sport by recent Popes!

Many don’t know, as I didn’t, that John Paul II spoke about sport on 120 recorded occasions – and what he said is really amazing! In short, his message was that practicing sport isn’t just about physical well-being and psychological rewards, but that sport is also a training ground for godly values and virtues with deep spiritual benefits thrown in. Wow! No wonder the bishops are interested in us focussing on how we as Christ’s body can access and benefit from sport, not just as Christians but as society as a whole.

Not wanting to lose sight of what John Paul II said and stood for, the bishops have asked Pope Benedict XVI, during his visit to the UK in September, to launch the John Paul II Foundation for Sport as a fitting legacy to this much-loved pope. The role of the foundation will be to engage with the sporting world at every level, from non-starter to amateur to elite sport, making sure that the deep spiritual benefits are being reaped by all.

I recently spoke with a group of secondary school pupils from London and asked them what they wanted to see in place once the 2012 Games had finished. I thought they’d say: “free access to sport”, or “the opportunity to use the Olympic facilities”. But no, their response was something totally different. Clearly and simply they said, “Peace. We want peace - on our streets, in our homes, in our hearts.” The experience of being afraid to walk down a neighbouring street for fear of being attacked, or killed even, is foreign to most of us. Yet to some of our young people this is a daily reality.

We know that Jesus is the Prince of Peace and offers us a peace that the world cannot give. So how can we help to respond to the growing concern in the hearts of young people in our cities who do not know Jesus, and more importantly do not experience His perfect peace? This is something we all need to be concerned about. Peace doesn’t just “happen”. Any steps towards peace need to come out of a long-term project where people are already passionate and engaged, both young and old alike. The Church has always been passionate about music, and more recently is getting passionate about the benefits of technology. And yet the world’s number one passion is – you guessed it – sport! Nothing has the potential like sport to break down barriers and to get people working together passionately.

I remember watching youths play a game of football with a ball made out of rags outside of a village in Kenya. Shortly into the second half, a voice came from the nearby minaret calling Muslims to prayer. Six lads from each team immediately left the pitch and ran off in the same direction. I asked one of the remaining boys where they were going. “They are all Muslims. They are off to the mosque. Our teams of eleven are now five-a-side. We deliberately choose them this way. We must now all play harder to win for our absent brothers.” These young men were living something profound. They had found a way of living passionately side-by-side, irrespective of their religious differences. I have often wondered how much their passion for football added to the unseen harmony in village life.

In seventeen years of working nationally and internationally in the Church, I have never worked with other Christian denominations in such a unified and exciting way as I am doing now. Much of my work is done under the umbrella of a new Christian charity in the UK called More Than Gold, which has been created especially for the Games.

In the run up to 2012, any efforts by the Catholic Church to engage with the Olympics and Paralympics are being done as joint ventures where resources, gifting, time, personnel, prayer – everything we have to offer – are being pooled so that we can best serve the nations of the world once they arrive on our shores. This is fast becoming the largest ever ecumenical venture in our countries’ history with programme teams set up to engage with sports mission, sports resources, social justice issues, big screen festivals, prayer and intercession, creative and performing arts, and many more.

When it comes to the Games themselves, we are encouraging those in the Christian community to sign up as volunteers at www.london2012.com. The Olympic sites need 70,000 volunteers for the duration of the Games. London as a host city needs 8,000. Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff, Glasgow and Newcastle will all need volunteers for their Olympic visitors, as will Weymouth. On the same website, the nomination process has recently opened for 8,000 torch bearers who are needed to carry the torch around the UK in the seventy day lead-up to the Games, with over half of the places expected to go to young people (which still leaves 4,000 places for those of us over thirty!). There are lots of ways to get involved.

More Than Gold will tour the UK in October and November visiting thirteen key towns and cities: Cardiff, Exeter, Newbury, Birmingham, Nottingham, Leeds, Durham, Bolton, Ely, Glasgow, Epsom, Belfast and London. The purpose is to encourage every church to play a part in serving the thousands who will visit. This is a one-off opportunity for churches to work together more closely than ever, to break down barriers and make a difference in their localities.

We can also provide a visible united witness to God’s love, and to have some fun in the process! I’ll be there and hope you might make it along to see what it is all about. If you are passionate about the 2012 Games, then you may wish to consider becoming one of More Than Gold’s regional or local Gold Champions. Details about all that is going on can be found at www.morethangold.org.uk

Furthering peace in our churches can’t help but to bring peace to the hearts of our local communities. The peace that youngsters in London desire as a legacy is something tangible. For this to happen, however, many deliberate, unseen steps need to be taken starting with the Christian community.

So, sport has now made its way not only onto pitches and TV screens, but also onto the Church’s agenda. Sport is here to stay, and it may just be the vehicle of peace that our youngsters hunger for. The challenge we are left with is this: will we take note of sport and, like St Paul, “run to win… for a crown that will last forever… so as not to lose out after telling the good news to others”? (cf. 1 Cor. 9:24-27)

Copies of John Paul II’s writings on sport are freely available by emailing james.parker@cbcew.org.uk.

So, what part
can we play
in the 2012
Games, in the
ecumenical
work of More
Than Gold,
and in creating
a culture of
greater peace
for our young
people?