A 40-page ecumenical booklet containing spiritual texts, meditations and blessings has been published for the German athletes participating in the next Winter Olympic Games in Turin (10-26 February) and in the Paralympics. Part of the kit being given to all German athletes participating in the Turin Olympics, the booklet, with the title “Thank God sport exists!”, was published on 19 January by the Church and Sport work group of the German Evangelical Church (EKD) and by the office for sport of the German Bishops’ Conference. “Sport is worth praying for. And we shall pray”, declared the Olympic chaplains of the two Churches, Thomas Weber and Hans-Gerd Schütt, together with the woman chaplain for the Paralympics, Claudia Rudolff. “Faith is so important that no field of life should be excluded from it”. The recipients of the booklet are not just the athletes themselves but also their trainers and members of the various teams, “so that they may find moments of peace and relaxation in spite of the physical and psychological demands of the Games”. The Catholic Church and the Evangelical Church have been jointly publishing an ecumenical brochure on the occasion of the Olympic Games since 1994.
