Olympic Games: Episcopalian to Swim for Puerto Rico
Episcopal News Service. August 10, 2004 [081004-1-A]
* Florida Episcopal High School graduate to swim in Summer Olympics
* Athens' Anglicans open doors
Florida Episcopal High School graduate to swim in Summer Olympics
[ENS, New York, August 10, 2004] A former Episcopal High School graduate from Jacksonville, Florida, is hoping to hit gold this month when he represents the Puerto Rican Olympic swimming team in the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.
While still in high school, Jorge Oliver, who will compete in the 200 meter Individual Medley August 18, earned the title of state champion and district champion in the 100 meter freestyle in 1997 and '98. He set Episcopal school records in the 50, 100 and 500 meter freestyle, the 100 meter backstroke and the 200 meter Individual Medley, and was the Puerto Rican national record holder in the 200 meter backstroke at the age of 14.
A native of Puerto Rico, Oliver graduated in December 2003 with a degree in chemical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. As a senior
(2002-03) he swam for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, ranking in the top three on the squad in the backstroke, butterfly and individual medley. Oliver ranks in six different all-time top 10 lists in the Georgia Tech history.
The 2004 Athens Olympics Games run August 13-29 and the Paralympic Games September 17-28.
Athens' Anglicans open doors for Summer Olympics
Ministry at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games
The Greater Athens Chaplaincy, a group of churches in Greece and the Aegean Islands which are part of the Church of England's Diocese in Europe, is using the challenges of ministering to athletes and visitors at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games to bring the different churches in Greece closer together.
The national Athens Olympic Organizing Committee (ATHOC) is hosting athletes and their coaches in an Olympic village on the outskirts of Athens and a Religious Services Center is available for use by all faiths.
Evangelical and Anglican churches have recruited and selected a worldwide team of 45 Protestant and Anglican ministers to serve in the Olympic Village, during the Olympic Games in August and the Paralympics in September. Many of them have wide experience of sports chaplaincy in their own countries or in previous Olympics and other sporting events, and all have agreed to come at their own expense.
For further information telephone/fax + 30 210 614 8198 or e-mail mjrcounsell@hotmail.com
St Paul's Church, Philellinon Street, Athens (near Syntagma Square, opposite the national gardens) will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. until Thursday, September 30, as a welcome, advice and assistance center for visitors to the Olympic Games. There will be a meditation at noon and a Communion service at 6 p.m. daily from Monday to Saturday, and 10.15 a.m. Communion Service with hymns and sermon, and 6 p.m. Evensong on Sundays.
The Religious Services Center in the Olympic Athletes' Village will be open and manned from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily until Wednesday September 1.
Eucharistic services are as follows:
Sunday August 15, Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary
St. Paul's, 10.15 a.m. Holy Eucharist
The Olympic Village RSC, Holy Eucharist
Tuesday August 17
St. Paul's, 10 a.m. Holy Eucharist
Sunday August 22, Eleventh Sunday after Trinity, Proper 16
St. Paul's, 10.15 a.m. Holy Eucharist
The Olympic Village RSC, Holy Eucharist
Tuesday August 24
St Paul's, 10 a.m. Holy Eucharist
Sunday 29 August, Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, Proper 17
St. Paul's, 10.15 a.m. Holy Eucharist
The Olympic Village RSC, Holy Eucharist
St. Andrew's, Patras, 7 p.m. Holy Eucharist
A Short History
St. Paul's is an early Victorian Gothic church designed by the eminent Danish architect Christian Hansen (1803-1833). It is one of a collection of Athenian buildings for which he was responsible, the most important being the impressive University building in Panepistemiou Street.
Dr. J.H. Hill of the Episcopal Church (USA), who established the "Hill School for Girls," which still exists, and the Rev. H. D. Leeves, who was chaplain to the British Legation in Athens, galvanized the English-speaking community in the late 1830s to raise finances for the construction of St. Paul's. St. Paul's was consecrated on Palm Sunday in 1843, and is one of the earliest churches of the foreign community in Athens.
St. Paul's has been a significant focus for the English-speaking community in Athens and beyond. For 170 years it has provided continuous Christian worship and pastoral care.
Its stained-glass windows, furnishings and plaques commemorate significant personalities within that community. The windows in the north and south transepts are dedicated to the memory of General Richard Church, who was appointed in 1827 to command the Greek military forces fighting in the War of Independence from the Turks. The scenes depicted in these windows are from the stories of the Israelites entering the Promised Land, and as such provide an extraordinary celebration of Greece's struggle to re-enter its own Promised Land.
As a devout Anglican, Richard Church adopted Greek citizenship and became a senator within the Greek Parliament. St. Paul's also possesses registers of baptism and marriages providing a fascinating window on the life of the English-speaking community in Greece. Hung within its chancel are the flags of the Allied Forces who assisted in the liberation of Greece in the Second World War.
Today, St Paul's is the focus of a ministry that is spread throughout mainland Greece and the islands.
For more information please visit: www.athensanglicans.com.