Early in the service, the children carried models of the Olympic flame around the outside of the church, reminding us that just as the Olympic torch brought good news of the coming Olympics, so we have good news of the love of Christ to pass on.
The international aspect of both the Olympics and the Christian church was reflected in a quiz in which the congregation identified 10 national flags. (They were a bit slow on Burundi). Then the children brought forward a number of national flags and placed them in containers on the Holy Table.
Another quiz identified which of 10 actions found in the Bible are the basis of an Olympic sport To some people's surprise, these included archery, sailing and the javelin. However, synchronised swimming missed out!
During our talk, we looked at the way that St Paul used the analogy of an athlete training, running the race, and receiving a prize as teaching on the way that we should be prepared to run the Christian race with its final glorious prize of being in the presence of God.
