PARIS, FRANCE, July 29, 2024 (Religion News Service): For the more than 11,040 athletes from more than 200 countries in Paris for the 2024 Summer Olympics, the games are not just one of the most physically intense moments of their lives, but psychologically intense as well, as years of training and hoping may be realized or lost in mere moments. It’s enough to drive a person of faith to pause for prayer or to contemplate the meaning of life. For these moments, some 120 faith leaders from five of the world’s major religions (and three denominations of Christianity) have taken up residence in their own corner of the village, where they will provide services to the athletes who seek them. In the Hindu chapel, “We made many statues, each symbolizing a different Deity,” Chaplain Deep Patel told publication La Croix. “We will be able to pray with the athlete, contemplate, meditate and ensure that every trial helps them move forward.”

“We have a synagogue, a church, a Buddhist temple, a Hindu temple and more together,” Rabbi Moshe Lewin, one of the Jewish chaplains in the village, told Religion News Service. Lewin, chief rabbi of the three northeast Paris neighborhoods of Le Raincy, Villemomble and Gagny and vice president of the Conference of European Rabbis, said he and other leaders had worked on the chaplaincy project with France’s Interior Ministry for more than a year. As the Olympics is meant to promote unity among nations, there is a strong sense of interfaith collaboration among those ministering to the athletes. “I can testify that throughout the entire preparation process and now, when we have begun to implement this project, we have been walking hand in hand and with one heart,” said the Rev. Anton Gelyasov, a Greek Orthodox priest from the Metropolis of France. “The official motto of the French Republic is: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. These values ​​are not simply implemented by us, chaplains of various religions; they are something organic and completely normal for us.”

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https://religionnews.com/2024/07/29/as-nations-face-off-in-olympic-competition-faith-leaders-unite-to-serve-athletes/

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