The Velodrome
Stadium entrance
The Aquatics Centre
The Aquatics Centre
View towards Docklands
Waiting for the bus
Entering the site
The International Broadcast Centre / Main Press Centre
Olympic Stadium
Olympic VillageToday I was part of the visit to the Olympic Village site organised by the London & South East Region of the Industrial Mission Association. We met in Stratford to join the bus and, led by our informative tour guide Victoria, were taken on an hour-long journey around the whole site.
After our visit we went to St Pauls Stratford, where Revd. Kevin Woolmer is Chaplain to the Construction Workers for the New Stratford City Shopping Centre and the Construction Workforce of the London 2012 Olympics. There we were led in a theological reflection on our visit by Fr. Dermot Tredget of Douai Abbey.
We thought initially about the complexity of relations between the large number of stakeholders involved and the difficulty of ensuring that all stakeholders can properly be heard.
We looked at several biblical texts (1 Corinthians 9. 24-27, 2 Timothy 2. 5, 2 Timothy 4. 7, and Hebrews 12. 1) which helped us reflect on the pressure that the organisers and athletes are under to succeed. Several of these passages, although not all, commend competing and completing as more important than winning and one commends competing within the rules (particularly relevant in the light of bloodgate and the recent football fines and bans on clubs and players perceived to have cheated).
We noted that, in her article A Hymn to Life: The Sports Theology of Pope John Paul II, Connie Lasher writes that, "Pope John Paul II speaks of sport as a school of human virtue that ennobles the individual and becomes a vehicle of friendship and social interaction on the part of athletes and spectators." Sport has the potential to enrich and develop people but can bring perils as well as promises.
Small group discussions then resulted in the following reflections:
- the Olympics is elitist and the poor won't be there (e.g. no cheap tickets for locals);
- the legacy should be the priority and a part of this could include community organising to ensure that the community is recognised and heard as a stakeholder;
- the chaplain's role is a prophetic speaking to the structures of the organisations involved as much as it is pastoral with those working in the organisations;
- chaplaincy involves continual negotiation as the parameters within which they work constantly change on a huge project such as this;
- effective pastoral work among workers generates a feed upwards so that, for example, one construction company specifically sought out the chaplain to arrange specific dates and times for visits to their site as a result of hearing from their staff of the benefit felt in having the chaplain visit.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark Heard - Lonely Moon.
4 comments:
Jonathan
Interesting post. I thought you weren't allowed to take pictures of the Olympic site?
I've been reading a book called Ground Control by Anna Minton (see below) which looks at (among other things) private and public space and the tendency for new developments (housing and retail) to actually be private space. Apparently this applies to the Westfield shopping complex that is being built as part of the Olympic development. It will be owned by a corporation which means that they will be able to control to some extent the activity that goes on there and the kinds of people who are allowed to be there. Also in practise it seems that less well off people feel uncomfortable in such places, something that was confirmed by a speaker at Greenbelt talking about the Liverpool One shopping centre. Anyway the book talks about lots more, I'd recommend it.
Huw
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ground-Control-Fear-Happiness-Twenty-First-Century/dp/0141033916/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252132952&sr=8-1
Hi Huw,
Our tour guide said taking still photos was ok but no filming was allowed.
Some time ago Paul Trathen reviewed a book that may cover some similar ground from a theological perspective. His review is at: http://www.usask.ca/relst/jrpc/br13-shoppingmalls.html.
The book is 'Shopping Malls and Other Sacred Spaces: Putting God in Place' by Jon Pahl (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2003. 286 pp. $19.99 (USD). ISBN: 1-58743-045-2).
In it Pahl analyzes the sacred as revealed in place and object as presented in contemporary life in the US, and then the traditions of the Jewish and Christian scriptures. The first part examines the fashion system, concepts of “place,” the shopping mall, Walt Disney World, the suburban household, and affordable housing.
By helping Christians to ask questions such as “What would a healthy, Godly city or neighbourhood look like?” Pahl is urging those in the community of faith not to be content simply to leave civic and communitarian questions to be resolved by others. I suspect therefore he would agree with the concerns you are raising about the differences between public and private space.
I wondered too while I was there what the plans are for the existing shopping centre in Stratford once Westfield is open. The existing centre is a medium-sized space containing market stalls as well as shops and, although somewhat cramped, has much more of a community feel than larger shopping centres. However, Westfield is likely to dominate and deplete the existing centre if it tries to to compete.
I imagine that that will not happen; that the privately owned Westfield will be the only shopping centre; that it will not have a community feel or a market area; and that the existing shopping centre will be redeveloped for housing. All of which would also have the effect of moving the centre of Stratford from its current location (including potentially isolating the currently vibrant St Johns Stratford). I haven't checked any online plans but can easily imagine such a scenario.
Jonathan
One of the interesting things about reading Ground Control was the etxent to which things have changed re. planning for developments without my noticing it. There has been very little public debate about how we should build and the possible implications of parts of our cities being effectively private property. Even when new housing developments are not private as such they have for many years been influenced by a policy called "Secured by Design" which is the UK version of "Defensible Space" (USA). In practice this can include gated communities (at both ends of the income scale), restricted access (only a few entrances) and no through roads and lots of cul-de-sac. The result is that (assuming you can get in at all) there is no reason to be there unless you live there or are visiting someone. The stranger becomes suspicious. When I was out yesterday I came across this sign, which seems appropriate.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hjacob/3889481882/
Huw
Private developers have always built housing estates for private sale, so is the change you note one that was not previously allowed by law or does it reflect market demand for gated communities (and has always been legally possible)?
At one of the local Area Committees there have been complaints recently from residents in a newish estate opposite King George's Hospital. There are no parking restrictions on their roads and so people visiting the Hospital tend to park there. The residents are unhappy about the ways in which they are inconvenienced by this but is their estate public or private land? They clearly want it to be treated as private in this respect but, if that is so, shouldn't they then be paying for all maintenance of the streetscape on their estate?
Post a Comment