With the London Olympics less than two years away, in Southwark Diocese work has begun to engage with the mission opportunities presented by the games.
A Diocesan Olympic coordinating group was formed in 2009, with local clergy from each of the four Olympic sites (Greenwich Peninsula, Greenwich Park, Woolwich and Wimbledon), plus representatives from the Board of Education, Youth & Children’s Group, Mission Department, Southwark Cathedral, Communication and Resources – and two former Olympic athletes, Lorna Boothe from Mitcham and Shaun Lightman from Selsdon.
The London Olympics pose an interesting jurisdictional challenge for the Church of England. Parts of Greater London fall within four dioceses.
Most of the Olympic venues are in the Diocese of Southwark (which covers basically the portions of metropolitan London south of the Thames that were part of the historic county of Surrey, including the boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Southwark, Wandsworth, and Greenwich), but there will also be things happening in the Diocese of London itself (north of the river–basically the Cities of London and Westminster, together with the historic county of Middlesex), the Diocese of Rochester (east of Southwark in historic Kent, including the London boroughs of Bexley and Bromley), and the Diocese of Chelmsford (Essex, including the five boroughs of London north of the Thames and east of the River Lea).