St Paul’s Cathedral will echo with an unaccustomed sound on the Sunday after next: a three-a-side wheelchair-basketball game is to be played beneath the dome during a service to mark the opening of the Paralympic Games the following Wednesday. The Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Richard Chartres, will preside, and the service will begin when Chris Holmes, the blind Paralympian swimmer, runs in through the Great West doors with a laurel wreath, and places it on the altar. Baroness Grey-Thompson, who won 16 Paralympic medals during her sporting career, will give the address. Lord Coe and Dame Tessa Jowell MP are expected to attend. In a message to the 2700 young people who volunteered to be ‘ambassadors for Christ’ during the Games, Bishop Chartres said: ‘Without seeking to undermine the Prime Minister's emphasis on the virtues of competition, I think that you all deserve a medal.’
Pray: that the success of the Games will continue and the Paralympic Games will add to the amazing legacy already achieved. (Heb.12:1)